Nearly half a generation has passed since P. K. Whelpton's bulletin, "Iowa's Population Prospect," was published by the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station. Since that time the depression and drouth of the 1930's have passed, and Iowa has come through the harrowing experiences of World War II. Many of the problems which accompanied those emergencies have been solved or forgotten. Iowans are looking and working toward the future.

The future growth and development of Iowa depends in large part· upon the number and the quality of her population. The present, therefore, appears to be a good time to examine the facts about important changes in the number, distribution and characteristics of the population of Iowa and to indicate some of the more important relationships between these population changes and Iowa institutions and programs.