DECLINING POPULATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22774, 7 July 1937, Page 13

DECLINING POPULATION

FUTURE OF BRITISH RACE INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE LONDON, June 2:t Children or grandchildren of people alive to-day may live to see Britain's population decline by nine-tenths, and may exist in a country of dying towns, eniQty buildings, and almost silent industry. This is one of the startling conclusions emerging from a preliminary survey of the falling birth-rate by the Population Investigation Committee, in its first report, published by Reynolds' News.

The committee, on the assumption that recent trends in birth and death rates will continue, gives these estimates of the future population of England and Wales: —1940, 40,655,000; 1960,- 37,441,000; 1980, 28,857,000:

2000, 17,685,000; 2020, 8,563,000; 2035. 4,426,000. The committee hopes to answer the question how far the motives leading to restriction of families are selfish and how far unselfish. Dr. C. P. Blacker, secretary of the' committee, believes that parents who decline to have children because of the possibility of war, slumps, and social upheaval are still rare.

Bv special arrangement. Router's world ' service, in addition to other special sources of information, is tised in the compilation of the oversea intelligence published in this issue, and all rights therein in Australia and New' Zealand are reserved. Such of the cable news on this page as is en headed has appeared in the Times, and is cabled to Australia and New Zealand by special permission. It should be anderstood that the opinions are not those of the Times unless expressly stated to be to.