Online Encyclopedia

superior in the latter respect, and is in many cases taken in countries where registration has not yet been introduced . The countries where neither is in force See also:

AXE (0. Eng. aex; a word common, in different forms, in the Teutonic languages, and akin to the Greek 41v17; the New English Dictionary prefers the spelling " ax ")

axe still, unfortunately, very numerous . The Population of the See also:

WORLD

World, and its See also:

GEOGRAPHICAL

Geographical See also:

DISTRIBUTION (Lat. distribuere, to deal out)

Distribution . —See also:

Man is the only See also:

animal which has proved able to pass from dependence upon its environment to a greater or less See also:

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

control over it . He alone, accordingly, has spread over every See also:

QUARTER (through Fr. from Lat. quartarius, fourth part)

quarter of the globe . The area and population of the world, as a whole, have been the subject of many estimates in scientific See also:

WORKS

works for the last three centuries and are still to a considerable extent matters of rough approximation . Every See also:

DECADE (from Gr. Oka, ten)

decade, however, brings a diminution of the See also:

field of conjecture, as some See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form of civilized See also:

ADMINISTRATION (Lat. administrare, to serve)

administration is extended over the more backward tracts, and is followed, in due course, by a survey and a census . It is not necessary, therefore, to cite the estimates framed before 1882, when a carefully revised See also:

SUMMARY

summary was published by See also:

BOEHM, SIR JOSEPH EDGAR

Boehm and H . See also:

Wagner .

Since then the laborious investigations of P . F . See also:

LEVASSEUR, PIERRE EMILE (1828– )

Levasseur and L . Bodio have been completed in the case of See also:

EUROPE

Europe and See also:

AMERICA

America, and, for the See also:

REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

rest of the world, the figures annually brought up to date in the Statesman's See also:

YEAR

Year See also:

BOOK

Book may be taken to be the best avail-able . From these See also:

SOURCES

sources the abstract at See also:

FOOT

foot of See also:

page has been derived . The See also:

PRINCIPAL

principal tracts still unmeasured and unenumerated (in any strict sense) in the Old World are the See also:

TURKISH

Turkish See also:

EMPIRE

Empire, See also:

PERSIA

Persia, See also:

AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan, See also:

CHINA

China and the Indo-See also:

CHINESE, JAPANESE AND

Chinese peninsulaand nearly nine-tenths of See also:

Africa . In the same See also:

CATEGORY (Gr. Karrlyopia, " accusation ")

category must be placed a considerable proportion of central, See also:

SOUTHERN

southern and Polar America (see CENSUS) . There is little of the world which is entirely uninhabited; still less permanently uninhabitable and unlikely to be required to support a population in the course of the expansion of the See also:

RACE

race beyond its See also:

PRESENT

present abodes . Probably the polar regions alone do not fall within the category of the potentially productive, as even sandy and alkaline See also:

DESERT

desert is rendered habitable where See also:

IRRIGATION (Lat. in, and rigare, to water or wet)

irrigation can be introduced; and vast tracts of fertile See also:

SOIL

soil adapted for immediate exploitation, especially in the temperate zones, both See also:

north and See also:

south, only remain unpeopled because they are not yet wanted for colonization . The geographical distribution of the population of the world is therefore extremely irregular, and, omitting from See also:

CONSIDERATION (from Lat. considerare, to look at closely, examine, generally taken to be from con-, and the base seen in sidus, sideris, a star, the word being supposed to be originally an astrological or astronomical term)

consideration areas but recently colonized, the See also:

DENSITY (Lat. densus, thick)

density is regulated by the means of subsistence within reach . " La population," says G. de Molinari, " a tendance de se proportionner a son debouche." These, in their turn, depend mainly upon the See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character of the people who inhabit the country . Even amongst savages there are few communities, and those but sparse, which subsist entirely upon what is directly provided by nature .

As human intelligence and See also:

INDUSTRY (Lat. industria, from indu-, a form of the pre, position in, and either stare, to stand, or struere, to pile up)

industry come into See also:

PLAY

play the means of livelihood are proportionately extended; population multiplies, and with this multiplication See also:

PRODUCTION (Lat. productionem, from producere, to pro-duce)

production increases . Thus, the higher densities are found in the eastern hemisphere, within the See also:

ZONE (Gr. 'WV77, a girdle, from 'wvvLvay to gird)

zone in which arose the See also:

GREAT

great civilizations of the world, or, roughly speaking, between north See also:

PARALLELS

parallels 25 and 40 towards the See also:

east, and 25 and 55 in the See also:

west . Here large areas with a mean density of over 500 to the sq. m. may be found either supported by the See also:

food directly produced by themselves, as in the great agricultural plains of the See also:

MIDDLE

middle See also:

KINGDOM

kingdom of China and the See also:

GANGES (GANGA)

Ganges valley and See also:

DELTA (from the shape of the Gr. letter A, delta, originally used of the mouth of the Nile)

delta; or else, as in western Europe, relying largely upon food from abroad, See also:

PURCHASED

purchased by the products of manufacturing industry . In the one class the density is mainly rural, in the other it is chiefly due to the concentration of the population into large See also:

urban aggregates . It is chiefly from the populations of the south-west of Europe that the New World is being colonized; but the territories over which the settlers and their recruits from abroad are able to scatter are so extensive that even the See also:

LOWER

lower densities of the Old World have not yet been attained, except in a few tracts along the eastern coasts of See also:

AUSTRALIA

Australia and North America . Details of area and population are given under the headings of the respective countries, and the only See also:

general point in connexion with the relation between these two facts which may be mentioned here is the need to See also:

bear in mind that the larger the territory the less likely is its mean density-figure to be typical or really representative . Even in the case of small and comparatively homogeneous countries such as See also:

Holland, See also:

Belgium or See also:

Saxony there is considerable deviation from the mean in the density of the respective component subdivisions, a difference which when extended over more numerous aggregates often renders the general mean misleading or of little value . Distribution of Population by Sex.—After geographical See also:

dispersion, the most general feature amongst the human race is its See also:

DIVISION (from Lat. dividere, to break up into parts, separate)

division by sex . ,The number of speculations as to the nature of this distinction has been, it is said, well-nigh doubled since Drelincourt, in the 18th See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century, brought together 262 " ground-less hypotheses," and propounded on his own See also:

PART

part a theory See also:

CONTINENT (from Lat. continere, "to hold together "; hence " connected," " continuous ")

Continent . S q m. in Population, in Population Unascertained thousands thousands. pop Percentage of : per sq. m . (1907) . 1882 .

1907 . (1907) . Area un- Population surveyed . Unenumerated . Europe 3,828* 327,743 405,759 Io6f 2.5* 1.3 See also:

ASIA

Asia . . 15,773 795,591 918,324 58 43'2 59.4 Africa . . 11,507 205,823 126,734 II 90'I 77'4 America . 17,208* 100,415 149,944 9t 50.0* 9.1 See also:

OCEANIA

Oceania . 3,448 4,232 5,881 I.7 5.4 19.6 Total 51,764 1,433,804 1,606,542 31'7t 50.4* 41.4 • Including Polar regions. t Excluding Polar regions . which has since been held to be the 263rd in the See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series . It is not proposed to See also:

DEAL

deal here with incidents appertaining to the " ante-See also:

NATAL

natal gloom," and we are concerned only with human beings when once they have been See also:

BORN, IGNAZ, EDLER VON (1742–1791)

born . In regard to the division of these into male and See also:

FEMALE

female, the first point to be noted is that, in all communities of western See also:

CIVILIZATION

civilization, more boys are born than girls .

The excess ranges from 20 to 6o per thousand . In See also:

GREECE

Greece and See also:

Rumania it is exceptionally high, and in some See also:

ORIENTAL

Oriental or semi-Oriental countries it is said to give See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place to a deficit, though in the latter case the returns are probably not trustworthy . From the more accurate statistics available it appears that the excess of male births varies amongst different races and also at different times in the same community . It is high in new colonies and amongst the Latin races, with the exception of the See also:

French . These, with the See also:

ENGLISH

English, show a much smaller excess of boy-births than the See also:

AVERAGE

average of western Europe, and the proportion, moreover, seems to be somewhat declining in both these countries and in Belgium, from causes which have not yet been ascertained . As the mortality amongst boys, especially during the first year, is considerably above that of the other sex, numerical See also:

EQUILIBRIUM (from the Lat. aequus, equal, and libra, a balance)

equilibrium between the two is established in See also:

early youth, and in most cases girls outnumber boys, except for a few years between twelve and sixteen . Then follows the chequered See also:

period of the See also:

PRIME, PRIMER AND PRIMING

prime of See also:

LIFE

life and middle age, during which the liability of men to See also:

INDUSTRIAL

industrial accidents, See also:

war and other causes of special mortality, irrespective of their greater inclination to emigrate, is generally sufficient to outweigh the dangers of childbirth or premature decay among the See also:

WOMEN

women, who tend, accordingly, to predominate in number at this See also:

STAGE (Fr. 6/age; from Lat. stare, to stand)

stage . In old age, again, their vitality rises superior to that of the men, and they continue to form the See also:

MAJORITY (Fr. majorite; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major, greater)

majority of the community . The general results are an excess of See also:

FEMALES

females over See also:

MALES

males throughout western Europe: but though the relative proportions vary from time to time, remaining always in favour of what is conventionally called the weaker sex, it is impossible, owing to disturbing factors like war and migration, to ascertain whether there is any general tendency for the proportion of females to increase or not . In comparatively new settlements, largely fed by See also:

IMMIGRATION (from Lat. in, into, and tnigrare, to depart)

immigration, the number of males is obviously likely to be greater than that of females, but in the case of countries in Asia and eastern Europe in which also a considerable deficiency of the latter sex is indicated by the returns, it is probable that the strict seclusion imposed by See also:

convention on women and the consequent reticence regarding them on the part of the householders answering the See also:

OFFICIAL (Late Lat. QJicialis, for class. Lat. apparitor, from officium, office, duty)

official inquiry tend towards a See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short See also:

COUNT (Lat. comes, gen. comitis, Fr. comte, Ital. conte, Span. conde)

count . On the other See also:

hand, the lower position there assigned to women and the very considerable amount of hard See also:

WORK

work exacted from them, may cause them to See also:

WEAR

wear out earlier than under higher conditions, though not to the extent implied in the statistics . In the Country .

6v E . 1 ~ - 7a 7, 4.8 Country . I y o .1-12 ° o o o$ o 0 o M ZS 0 w zs z~ 0e See also:

Sweden . . . 1049 946 See also:

Galicia . . . 1019 941 See also:

Norway . . 1064 944 See also:

Hungary . . 1009 949 See also:

FINLAND (Finnish, Suomi or Suomenmaa)

Finland . . 1022 948 Rumania . . 964 902 See also:

Denmark . . 1053 950 Greece .

. . 921 879 See also:

England . . 1069 966 See also:

SERVIA

Servia . . . 946 945 See also:

Scotland 1057 956 See also:

Bulgaria . . 959 927 See also:

Ireland . io28 946 See also:

Russia . Holland . . 1025 950 (Europe) 1011 948 j Belgium . . 1013 956 r Russia (Asia) . 893 See also:

Germany 1029 950 J See also:

JAPAN

Japan . . 983 - See also:

Austria . 1042 947 See also:

India 963 See also:

France .

. . 1033 960 See also:

EGYPT

Egypt . . 967 — See also:

Italy . . . 1011 947 See also:

UNITED

United States . 958 — See also:

Spain . . 1049 938 See also:

CANADA

Canada 952 — See also:

PORTUGAL

Portugal . . 1093 899 See also:

ARGENTINE

Argentine . 893 — Cape See also:

COLONY (Lat. colonia, from colonus, a cultivator)

Colony . 977 — Australia 906 950 New See also:

ZEALAND (also SEALAND Or SEELAND; Danish Sjaelland)

Zealand . 900 — following table the latest available information on this See also:

head is given for representative countries of western and eastern Europe, the East and the New World . Distribution by A ge.—Few facts are more uncertain about an individual than the number of years he will live .

Few, on the contrary, as was pointed out by C . See also:

BABBAGE, CHARLES (1792—1871)

Babbage, are less subject to fluctuation than the duration of life amongst people taken in large aggregates . The age-constitution of a community does indeed vary, and to a considerable extent, in course of time, but the changes are usually See also:

GRADUAL (Med. Lat. gradualis, of or belonging to steps or degrees; gradus, step)

gradual, and often spread over a See also:

GENERATION (from Lat. generare, to beget, procreate; genus, stock, race)

generation or more . At the same time, it must be admitted that those which have recently taken place amongst most of the communities of western Europe are remarkable for both their rapidity and their extent; and are probably attributable, in part at least, to influences which were almost inoperative at the time when Babbage wrote . The distribution of a population amongst the different periods of life is regulated, in normal circumstances, by the See also:

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

birth-See also:

RATE

rate, and, as the mortality at some of the periods is far greater than at others, the See also:

DEATH

death-rate falls indirectly under the same influence . The statistics of age, there-fore, may be said to form a See also:

LINK

link between those of the population, considered as a fixed quantity, as at a census, and those which See also:

RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

record its movement from year to year . To the correct See also:

INTERPRETATION (from Lat. interpretari, to expound, explain, inter pres, an agent, go-between, interpreter; inter, between, and the root pret-, possibly connected with that seen either in Greek 4 p4'ew, to speak, or irpa-rrecv, to do)

interpretation of the latter, indeed, they are essential, as will appear below . Unfortunately, the return of age is amongst the less satisfactory results of a general enumeration, though its inaccuracy, when spread over millions of persons, is susceptible of correction mathematically, to an extent to make it serve its purpose in the directions above indicated . The See also:

ERROR (Lat. error, from errare, to wander, to err)

error in the See also:

ORIGINAL

original return generally arises from See also:

IGNORANCE (Lat. ignorantia, from ignorare, not to know); want of knowledge, a state of mind which in law has important consequences. A well-known legal maxim runs: ignorantia juris non excusat ("ignorance of the law does not excuse")

ignorance . An illiterate population is very prone to See also:

state its age in even multiples of five, and even where See also:

EDUCATION

education is widely spread this tendency is not altogether absent, as may be seen from the examples given in Number returned at each age per 10,000 of Population . United States, Russia, 1897 . Age .

Germany, 1900 . India, 1900 . 1891 - Native Asia, Females . Whites . Negroes . Europe . Females . 19 18o 196 204 166 112 64 20 182 200 252 223 385 505 21 181 191 204 143 113 54 29 130 146 119 92 6o 42 30 149 170 218 269 456 624 31 145 125 76 74 74 30 4 9 88 72 62 45 38 12 5o 94 84 1 1 51 89 6 38 35 234 312 59 62 43 30 25 18 to 6o 70 49 I 05 163 179 281 61 6o 33 15 22 25 II Table III . Deliberate mis-statements, too, are not unknown, especially amongst women . This has been repeatedly illustrated in the English census reports . Irrespective of the wish of women between 25 and 40 to return themselves as under 25, there appears to be the more See also:

PRACTICAL

practical See also:

MOTIVE (from Lat. movere, to move)

motive of obtaining better terms in industrial See also:

INSURANCE

insurance, whilst an overstatement of age often has, it is said, the See also:

OBJECT

object of getting better See also:

WAGES (the plural of " wage," from Late Lat. wadium, a pledge, O. Fr. wagier, gagier)

wages in domestic service, or better See also:

DIETARY

dietary in the workhouse ! In all countries, moreover, there seems to be an inclination to exaggerate See also:

LONGEVITY

longevity after the three See also:

SCORE (O.E. scor, from sceran, to cut, notch, cf. " shear ")

score years and ten have been passed .

In See also:

order to minimize the results of such inaccuracy, the return of ages is compiled in aggregates of five or ten years and then redistributed over single years by the method of See also:

DIFFERENCES, CALCULUS OF (Theory of Finite Differences)

differences . The present purpose being merely to illustrate the variation of distribution amongst a few representative countries, it is unnecessary to enter into more detail than such as will serve to distinguish the proportions of the population in See also:

main divisions of life . Thus it may be said that in the west of Europe about one-third of the people, roughly speaking, are under fifteen; about one-See also:

HALF

half, between that age and fifty, and the remaining See also:

SIXTH

sixth older than fifty . The middle period may conveniently be extended to sixty and subdivided at See also:

FORTY

forty, as is done in Table IV . The differences between the several countries in their age-constitution can best be appreciated by reference to some recognized general See also:

standard . The one here adopted is the result of the co-ordination of a See also:

long series of enumerations taken in Sweden during the last century and a half, prepared by Dr G . Sundbarg of See also:

STOCKHOLM

Stockholm . It is true that for practical use in connexion with vital statistics for a given period, the aggregate age-distribution of the countries concerned would be a more accurate basis of comparison, but the wide period covered by the See also:

SWEDISH

Swedish observations has the See also:

ADVANTAGE

advantage of eliminating temporary disturbances of the See also:

BALANCE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. bilantia, an apparatus for weighing, from bi, two, and lanx, a dish or scale)

balance of ages, and may thus be held to compensate for the comparatively narrow geographical extent of the field to which it relates . Country . Census Per woo of Population . 1 See also:

EAR (common Teut.; O.E. are, Ger. Ohr, Du. oor, akin to Lat. auris, Gr. ovs)

ear . Under 15 .

15-40 . 40-60 . Over 6o . Standard . . . — 336 389 192 83 Sweden . . 1900 324 366 191 119 Norway . . . „ 354 361 176 109 Finland . . . 345 386 187 82 Denmark . . „ 339 376 186 99 England .

. 1901 324 423 179 74 -cotland . . . „ 334 416 173 77 Ireland . , . 304 407 18o 109 Holland . . . 1899 348 384 175 93 Belgium . . . 1900 317 404 184 95 Germany „ 348 395 179 78 Austria . . . ., 344 402 182 72 France 1901 261 389 226 124 Italy 341 366 196 97 Portugal . . 1900 338 375 191 96 Galicia .

. . „ 377 399 178 46 Hungary . . „ 356 379 189 76 Servia „ 419 395 142 44 Bulgaria 414 322 172 92 Greece . . 1889 393 400 155 52 Russia (Europe) 1897 350 385 18o 85 India (males) 1891 391 399 163 47 Japan . . 1898 335 384 193 88 United States . 1900 334 422 169 75 Canada . . . 1901 346 409 168 77 See also:

AUSTRALASIA

Australasia . 349 431 157 63 Cape Colony 1904 415 409 129 47 As regards See also:

correspondence with the standard distribution, it will be noted that Finland, the next country to Sweden geographically, comes after Japan, far detached from See also:

NORTHERN

northern Europe by both race and distance, and is followed by Portugal, where the conditions are also very dissimilar . The other Scandinavian countries, Norway and Denmark, appear, like Sweden itself in the present See also:

day, to bear in their age-distribution distinct marks of the See also:

EMIGRATION (from Lat. emigrare; e, ex, out of, and migrare, to depart)

emigration of adults, or, at least, the temporary See also:

ABSENCE (Lat. absentia)

absence from See also:

home of this class at the time of enumeration . The same can be said of Italy in its later returns and of Germany in those before 1895 . On the contrary, the effect of the inflow of adult migrants is very marked, as is to be expected, in the returns for the new countries, such as the United States, Canada and Australasia .

In the case of the Old World, the divergence from the standard which most deserves See also:

NOTICE

notice is the remarkable preponderance of the See also:

young in all the countries of eastern Europe, as well as in India, accompanied by an equally notable deficiency of the older elements in the population . Again, there are in the west two well-known instances of deficient reinforcement of the young, France and Ireland, in which countries the proportion of those under 15 falls respectively 75 and 32 per See also:

MUTE (Lat. tnutus, dumb)

mute below the standard; throwing those over 6a up to 41 and 26 per mille above it . The table does not include figures for earlier enumerations, but one general character- istic in them should be mentioned, viz. the far higher proportion See also:

BORNE, KARL LUDWIG (1786–1837)

borne in them of the young, as compared with the more See also:

RECENT

recent returns . In England, for instance, those under . 15 amounted to 36o per mille in 1841, against 324 sixty years later . In Ireland the corresponding fall has been still more marked, from 382 to 304 . The ratio in France was See also:

low throughout the 19th century, and during the last half See also:

fell only from 273 to 261, raising the proportion of the old above that resulting in northern Europe and Italy from emigration . It is remarkable that the same tendency for the proportion of the young to fall off is perceptible in new countries as well as in the older civilizations, setting aside the influence of immigration at the prime of life in depressing the proportion of See also:

CHILDREN, LAW RELATING TO

children . The possible causes of this wide-spread tendency of the mean age of a western community to increase appertain to the subject of the movement of the population, which is dealt with below . The Movement of Population.—” The true greatness of a State " says See also:

Bacon, " consisteth essentially in population and breed of men "; and an increasing population is one of the most certain signs of the well-being of a community . Successive accretions, however, being spread over so long a term as that of human life, it does not follow that the population at any given time is necessarily the result of contemporary prosperity . Conversely, the traces See also:

LEFT

left by a casual set-back, such as See also:

FAMINE (Lat. fames, hunger)

famine, war, or an epidemic disease, remain long after it has been succeeded by a period of recuperation, and are to be found in the age-constitution and the current vital statistics .

Population is continually in a state of See also:

motion, and in large aggregates the direction is invariably towards increase . The forces underlying the movement may differ from time to time in their respective intensity, and, in highly exceptional cases, may approach equilibrium, their natural tendencies being interrupted by special causes, but the instances of general decline are confined to See also:

WILD, JONATHAN (c. 1682-1725)

wild and comparatively small communities brought into contact with See also:

ALIEN (Lat. alienus)

alien and more civilized races . The factors upon which the growth of a population depend are See also:

INTERNAL

internal, operating within the community, or See also:

EXTERNAL

external, arising out of the relations of the community with other countries . In the latter case, population already in existence is transferred from one territory to another by migration, a subject which will be referred to later . Far more important is the vegetative, or " natural " increase, through the excess of births over deaths . The principal influences upon this, in civilized life, are the number of the married, the age at which they marry or bear children, the fertility of marriages and the duration of life, each of which is in some way or other connected with the others . See also:

MARRIAGE

Marriage.—In every country a small and generally diminishing proportion of the children is born out of wedlock, but the See also:

PRIMARY

primary regulator of the native growth of a community is the institution of marriage . Wherever, it has been said, there is See also:

ROOM

room for two to live up to the conventional standard of comfort, a marriage takes place . So See also:

close, indeed, up to recent times, was the connexion held to be between the prosperity of the country and the number of marriages, that Dr W . See also:

FARR, WILLIAM (1807-1883)

Farr used to See also:

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

call the latter the See also:

BAROMETER (from Gr. (3apoc, pressure, and µETpov, measure)

barometer of the former . The experience of the present generation, however, both in England and other" countries, seems to justify some relaxation of that view, as will appear below . The tendency of a community towards See also:

MATRIMONY (Lat. matrimonium, marriage, which is the ordinary English sense)

matrimony, or its " nuptiality,” as it is sometimes termed, is usually indicated by the ratio to the total population of the persons married each year .

For the purpose of comparing the circumstances of the same community at successive periods this method is fairly trustworthy, assuming that there has been no material shifting of the age-proportions during the intervals . It is not a safe See also:

GUIDE (in Mid. Eng. gyde, from the Fr. guide; the earlier French form was guie, English " guy," the d was due to the Italian form guida; the ultimate origin is probably Teutonic, the word being connected with the base seen in O. Eng. witan, to know)

guide, however, when applied to the comparison of different communities, the age-See also:

composition of which is probably by no means identical, but in consideration of its familiarity it has been adopted in the first See also:

section of Table V. below, at three periods for each of the countries selected as representative . One of the features which is prominent throughout the return is that in every country except Belgium the rate per See also:

MULE (Lat. mulus)

mule attained a maximum in the early seventies, and has since shown a descending tendency, notwithstanding the fact, noted in the preceding See also:

PARAGRAPH

paragraph, that the youthful population, which, of course, weighs down the rate, has also been relatively decreasing . Countries of Oriental and semi-Oriental habits have not been shown, owing to the difference in their marriage See also:

SYSTEM

system from that of western Europe . It may be mentioned, however, in passing, that their marriage rate is generally considerably higher than that here indicated, as may be seen from the example of Galicia, which is here shown separately from cis-Leithian Austria . years of age and decreases rapidly as that period is left behind . A Swedish return of 1896-1900 shows that the See also:

ANNUAL

annual births per thousand wives of 20-25 are fewer by nearly 17 % than those of wives under 2o . Between 25 and 30 the number falls off by one-fifth, and after 40 by about 44% . In the countries mentioned in Table V. the average proportion borne by wives under 30 to the total under 45 is just over one-third . That proportion is exceeded in southern Europe, where women develop earlier, and in Galicia . In England and France it stands at Per loon of Population . Country .

- Persons Married Yearly . Women, 15 to 45 (1900) . Men, 2o-5o . 1861-187o . 1871-1875 . 1895-1904 . Total . Married . Unmarried . Unmarried . Sweden 13.1 14.0 12.0 215 88 123 83 Norway 13.3 14.6 13.2 218 91 102 71 Finland 15.5 17.9 14.1 219 103 115 70 Denmark 14.9 15.9 14.6 221 104 III 81 England 16.7 17.1 15.8 250 117 127 77 Scotland 14.0 14'9 14'3 242 102 135 90 Ireland 10.5 10.7 Io• I 235 76 153 125 Holland 16.4 16.6 14.9 218 96 118 82 Germany 17.0 18.9 16.4 226 114 107 76 Belgium 15.o 15.1 16.4 230 Io8 117 85 Austria (W.) 16•I 17'7 15.7 227 Io6 115 85 France 15.6 16.9 15.2 228 120 too 82 Italy 15.2 15.6 14.4 214 I16 92 71 Galicia 19.7 19.7 17.6 225 125 94 67 In the opposite direction will be noted the case of Ireland, where the rate is abnormally low; and returns more recent than those included in the table show that of See also:

LATE

late the rates in Sweden and Norway have also fallen to but little above 11 per mille . In regard to the See also:

NECESSITY (Lat. necessitas)

necessity of taking into consideration the See also:

FACTOR (from Lat. facere, to make or do)

factor of age in the return of marriage-rates, an example may be here given from the data for England .

The rate taken upon the total population was 16.7 per mille in 187o-1871 and 15.3 in 1905; by excluding the population under fifteen the corresponding figures are 57.2 and 46.6 per mille . Thus the decline, which by the first method is only 8%, becomes, by the second, Ig°,o; and if the age-distribution of I9o5 were reduced to that of the earlier period, the difference would increase to 22%, the most accurate figure of the three . For the present purpose it is sufficient to connect the rate of marriage with that of births by using as a basis for the former the number of women of conceptive age, or between 15 and 45 years old . The proportion of these is given in the latter portion of the table . Again taking England as an example, the women of the above ages See also:

BORE

bore the proportion to the total population of 23% in 1871 and had risen to 25% in 19o1; but at the former time, 49.6% were married, whilst See also:

THIRTY

thirty years later, only 46.8 were thus situated . The table also shows that the proportion of the women of the ages in question who were married exceeds half only in Italy, France and Germany, not to mention Galicia . In other countries the average proportion is about 45% . In Sweden and Norway it is only 41 and in Ireland less than a third . In Scandinavia, and perhaps in Italy, the rate may be affected by the emigration of adult males, but the later columns of the table indicate that this is not the cause of the low rate in Ireland, which appears to be mainly due to See also:

ABSTINENCE (from Lat. abstinere, to abstain)

abstinence from marriage at the ages specified . Next to the proportion of the married to the total marriageable the most important factor connected with the natural increase of the population is the age at which marriage takes place . Where the proportion of the married is high, the average age of the wives is low, and early marriage is conducive to relatively rapid increase . In the first place, the See also:

INTERVAL

interval between generations is shortened, and the See also:

elder is contemporaneous with the younger for a longer period .

Then, again, the fecundity of women amongst western peoples is at its maximum between 18 and 2536 . In Ireland and Sweden it is only 28, and in Denmark, Holland and Norway, too, it is below the average . The registrar-general of England has pointed out a marked tendency towards the postponement of marriage in that country . Between 1876 and 1905, for instance, the proportion of minors married receded by 43% in the case of men and 32% amongst women . The mean age of husbands married in 1873 was 25.6 years and of wives 24.2, whereas thirty years later the corresponding ages were 28.6 and 26.4 . The general results of the decline of the marriage-rate and the postponement of marriage upon the natural growth of population will be discussed in connection with the birth-rate, though the statistics available do not permit of the accurate measurement of the respective influence of these factors, and there are others, too, which have to be taken into consideration, as will appear below . Births.-Apart from the information which the statistics of birth furnish as to the growth of population, they have, like those of marriage, and perhaps to even a greater extent, a special social See also:

INTEREST

interest from their See also:

BEARINGS

bearings upon the moral conditions of the community to which they relate . It is in their former capacity, however, that they enter into the present subject . A birth-rate, taken as it usually is upon the total population, old and young, is open to the objections made above respecting the marriage-rate, and with even more force, as the basis is itself largely the product of the fact which is being measured by it . The internal See also:

variations of the rate in a single community, however, can be fairly indicated in this way, as is done in Table VI., which, it is to be noted, refers to those born alive only and excludes the still-born, statistics regarding whom are incomplete . The crude birth-rate, it will be noted, is in general See also:

HARMONY (Gr. dpµovia, a concord of musical sounds, dpA'ew to join; &plan midi (sc. TeXvil)

harmony with that of marriage . In the countries where the former is high the rate of marriage is also above the average .

In eastern Europe, so far as the figures can be trusted, this is markedly the case, and the birth-rates range between 39 per mille in Hungary and 49 in Russia, where the tradition of encouraging prolificity amongst the peasantry has not been effaced . Among the lower rates which prevail in western Europe, however, the connexion is not so See also:

DIRECT

direct, and a low birth-rate is some-times found with a relatively higher marriage rate and See also:

VICE

vice versa, a deviation from the natural course of events which will be discussed presently . The birth-rate, like the marriage-rate, seems to have reached its See also:

ACME (Gr. 6.Kµii, point)

acme in the seventies, except in the three southern countries, France, Italy and Spain . The decline since the above period is very marked and exceeds that noted in the case of the rate of marriage . It is See also:

worth noting, too, that the fall in the crude birth-rate is not confined to the Old World, but has attracted special See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention in Australia and New Zealand, where a rate of 40 per mille in the period 1861-1870 has now given place to one of 26 . In See also:

MASSACHUSETTS (an Indian name, originally applied to a tribe of Indians)

Massachusetts and other of the older settlements of the United States, moreover, the same feature has been the subject of investigation . other than abstinence from marriage, at all events at the principal reproductive period; and perhaps to a decrease in marriage or remarriage after middle life, a period of which the See also:

WEIGHT

weight in the age-distribution has been increasing of late . On the other hand, the postponement of marriage in the case of women of conceptive ages is a tendency which seems to be growing in other countries as well as in England and undoubtedly has a depressing effect upon the rate of births . It would conduce, therefore, to further accuracy in the comparison of the rates of different countries if the latter were to be correlated with greater subdivision of the ages amongst wives between 15 and 45 . The proportion of wives below 30 to the total of that See also:

GROUP

group was Country . (A) Born alive, per moo of Total B Legitimate Births, per Births, moo P ( ) P Unmarried aper Unmarried Population . and Widowed Women, 15 to 45 .

Iwo Wives, 15 to 45 years old . 1841-1850 . 1861-187o . 1871-1875 . 1900-1905 . 188o-1882 . 189o-1892 . 1900-1902 . 1896-1900 . Sweden 31'1 31'4 30.7 26.7 293 28o 269 23.4 Norway 30'7 30.9 30.3 29'7 314 307 303 16'9 Finland 35.5 34'7 37.0 32.2 309 301 - ,8•o Denmark . . 30'5 31.o 30.8 29.7 287 278 259 23.6 England 34.6 36.o 36.o 29.0 286 264 235 8.8 Scotland - 34'8 35.0 29.7 311 296 272 14.1 Ireland . . - 26.1 26.4 23.2 283 288 289 3.9 Holland .

33'0 35'3 36•I 32'1 347 339 315 9'0 Belgium . 30.5 31.6 32.4 28.5 313 285 251 18.9 Germany 36.1 37'2 38'9 35'5 310 301 284 27.7 Austria (W.) 35'9 35.7 37.2 34.2 281 292 284 41.7 France 27.3 26.3 25.5 21.7 196 173 157 18.1 Italy . - 37.5 36'9 33.5 276 283 269 21•I Spain 37.8 36.5 34.8 258 264 259 - The crude rates which have been discussed above afford no explanation of this See also:

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

change, nor do they always illustrate its full extent . It is necessary, therefore, to eliminate the difference in the age-constitution of the countries in question by excluding from the field of observation, as before, all except possible mothers, basing the rate upon the respective See also:

numbers of women of the conceptive age, that is between r5 and 45 . The See also:

pro-portion borne by this group to the total population is in most cases fairly up to that set forth by Dr Sundbarg in his standard . It is well above it in all three parts of the United Kingdom and falls materially below it only in Scandinavia and Italy . Indeed, during the last generation, this proportion has been in most cases slightly increased, in consequence of the fall of the birth-rate which set in anterior to this period . The stock, then, from which wives are See also:

DRAWN

drawn is ample . The question remains, how far advantage is taken of it . According to the Sundbarg standard the percentage married is 48 . As has been shown in the preceding paragraph, this is surpassed in Italy, France and Germany, and approached in most of the rest, with the exception of Sweden, Norway and Scotland, which are six or seven points below it, and Ireland, where less than a third are married . The proportion married, moreover, has slightly increased since 188o, except in the United Kingdom .

In England the marriage-rate (on the age basis) fell off by 4.6% and in Scotland by 2%, whilst the crude birth-rate declined by 15 and I I % respectively . In Ireland the case was different, as the marriage-rate declined by 12% and the birth-rate by no more than 5'7% . In New South See also:

WALES (Cymru, Gwalia, Cambria)

Wales and New Zealand, too, the marriage-rates fell off in the same period by 11 and 28% respectively, whilst the decline in the birth-rates amounted to 35 and 31 % . In the above countries, therefore, abstinence from matrimony may be said to have been a factor of some importance in the decline . On the continent of Europe, however, looking at the divergence in direction between the crude marriage-rate and that corrected to an age-basis, it is not improbable that the decline in the former may be attributable to some causementioned in connexion with the marriage-rate, and in the figures See also:

RELATING

relating to some 30 years back some traces can be found of a connexion between a high birth-rate and a high proportion of young wives . In the present day, however, these indications do not appear, so it would seem that the tendency in question had been interrupted by some other influence, a point to which reference will be made below . If abstinence from marriage and the curtailment of the reproductive period by postponement of marriage he insufficient to See also:

account for the material change which has taken place in the birth-rate within the last few decades, it is clear that the latter must be attributable to the diminished fertility of those who are married . On this question the figures in the second portion of Table VI. throws some See also:

LIGHT

light . Here the annual number of legitimate births is shown in its proportion to the mean number of married women of conceptive age at each of the three latest enumerations . The rate, it will be seen, has fallen in all the countries specified, except for a slight increase of 2 % in Ireland and an almost stationary condition in Austria and Spain . The decline in Italy and Norway is small, but in France, where for a long time the fertility of the population has been very much below that of any other See also:

EUROPEAN

European country, the birth-rate thus calculated fell by nearly 20%, the same figure_ being approached in Belgium, where however, the fertility of married women is considerably greater . The case of England is remarkable .

In the earlier period its crude birth and marriage-rates were above the average and its proportion of young wives well up to it . Its fertility-rate, however, which was by no means high in 188o, fell by nearly 18% by 1901, and since that date a further fall is reported by the registrar-general, to 24%, leaving the rate below that of all the other European countries except France . The States of Australasia, again, have experienced a decline even more marked . In 188o-1882 their fertility-rate ranged from 300 to 338, a low proportion for a new country, but ne,rly up to the European standard . By 1900-1902, however, the rate had fallen in all the larger States by from 23 to 31% and the highest rate recorded, 253 per thousand conceptive wives, was lower than that of any European country except France and Belgium . The cessation of assisted immigration early in the life of the present generation is alleged to have had considerable influence upon the rate, in See also:

Victoria, at least, owing to the curtailment of the See also:

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

supply of adult women of the more conceptive ages and the ageing of those who had reached the country at an earlier date . But neither this nor the diminution of the marriage-rate amongst women of those ages suffices to account for more than a fraction of the decline . The same tendency, moreover, is traceable in the New England States of America, so far as statistics are available . It has been held by some that a phenomenon so widely diffused over the western world must be attributable to physiological causes, such as alcoholism, syphilis, the abuse of See also:

NARCOTICS (Gr. vapKmnKbs, making numb)

narcotics and so on . See also:

Herbert See also:

Spencer, again, before the decline in question set in, put forward the See also:

HYPOTHESIS (from Gr. inrorcOivat, to put under; cf. Lat. suppositio, from sub-ponere)

hypothesis that " the ability to maintain individual life and the ability to multiply vary inversely "; in other words, the See also:

STRAIN (through O. Fr. straindre, estraindre, mod. i treindre, from Lat. stringere, to draw tight, related to stress, stretch, string, &c.)

strain upon the See also:

NERVOUS

nervous system involved in the struggle for life under the conditions of See also:

MODERN

modern civilization, by reacting on the reproductive See also:

POWERS, HIRAM (1805-1873)

powers, tends towards See also:

COMPARATIVE

comparative sterility . These theories, however, being supported, according to the authorities of to-day, by no See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence, statistical or other, need not be here considered . Nor, again, can the decline in fertility be connected with any diminution of material prosperity .

On the contrary, the fertility-rate appears to be best maintained in countries by no means distinguished for their high standard of living, such as Spain, Italy, Ireland, and, perhaps, Austria . In this respect Holland stands by itself; but in the others mentioned, with the exception of Ireland, both marriage and birth-rates are high and there has been a comparatively insignificant fall in prolificity . The decline has been greatest where the standard of comfort is notoriously high, as in the United States, England and Australasia; also in France, where the general wellbeing reaches probably a lower See also:

DEPTH

depth in the community than in any other part of Europe . The comparison of the rates in France with those of Ireland is an instructive See also:

ILLUSTRATION

illustration of the point under consideration . In France more than half the women of conceptive age are married: in Ireland less than a third, and the proportion of youthful wives in the latter is 28% below that in France . In both the crude birth-rate is far below that of any other European country . But the fertility of the Irish wife exceeded that of her French compeer by 44% in 188o and by no less than 84% twenty years later . So steady, indeed, has been the prolificity of Ireland, that from being ninth on the See also:

list at the earlier period mentioned, it is now inferior only to Holland and perhaps Finland in this respect . It need not be assumed, however, that because these rates cannot be associated with the comparative degree of prosperity attained by the individual community they are altogether See also:

INDEPENDENT

independent of the economic factors mainly contributing to that condition, such as See also:

trade, employment and prices . It is difficult, indeed, if not impracticable, to disentangle the effects which should be respectively attributed to influences so closely related to each other; but, of the three, prices alone tend to sufficient uniformity in their course in different countries to justify a supposition that they are in some way connected with a phenomenon so widely diffused as that of the decline in marriage and fertility . It is not improbable, therefore, that the fall in whole-See also:

sale prices which, with temporary interruptions, persisted between 1870 and 'goo, in general harmony with the other movement, may have conduced to reluctance on the part of those who have enlarged their notions of the standard of comfort to en-danger their prospects of enjoying it by incurring the additional expenses of See also:

FAMILY

family life . Matrimony may be postponed, or, when entered upon, may be rendered a lighter See also:

BURDEN, or BURTHEN

burden upon the See also:

BREAD

bread-winner .

The economic See also:

ELEMENT (Lat. elementum)

element in the situation, which is imposed upon the individual by circumstances, is thus modified voluntarily into a moral or prudential consideration . In this case diminished prolificity where unaccompanied by a decrease in the number of marriages at reproductive ages, is attributable xx11 . 497 to the voluntary restriction of See also: