BRITISH EMPIRE CENSUS

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12481, 18 April 1906, Page 8

BRITISH EMPIRE CENSUS

FORTY YEARS OF GROWTH. ~

(FROM OCB OWN* rORBESro.VDEKT.) LONDON, March 9. In a Blue Book ot HOO pages, to-day, a report ami summary is giron of tho census of the British Empire in 1901. It has been found iuipracticable owing to the varying conditions of life in different parts ot the Umpire and to the want of uniformity in the methods ' of con.stnic.tion ami tabulation of the colonial censuses to prepare a report on * tho prectoe lines ot the English census report. Comparative .and detailed tablets have, however, been constructed for each British colony, dependency and protectorate, giving as fully as'dat* permit, information concerning (1) and dwelling houx>«. c?) number of the people. distinguishing agr, sex and con<lition as to marriage, birth-placce of the people, their roiigiou. education, - occupation, and their intimities. A do- : tailed preface of tills laUx publication occupies GO pages more, ami the whole tiling luis taken about live, years to arrange. Mi't-, and co-ordinate.

Statistics of the mast elaborate and complicated kind have had to be com. piltKl, but tho two facts which will ap. 1/oal mest to the. average reader aro v io the general extent «uu! population of tho Empire, and of the idoi composing it. J n lbtil the area of the whoto Enipiro was SJ niilhoii square milts, and ilie- i>opulatiou wjw al*»ut Every decennial ceiiNius since lias, shown developmeni in both re.->ptct«, and in r.,t)l the. extent w;l> cUwa upon 12,U00,0U0 «]twre miias, while, tie population had risen io a total of ■H>U,lK,v,ooo. i'lie compilers feel it ditticult to apportion the growth of population between acquired territory jwid natural increase, liio bi {.aft Empire now occupies one-tilth of iAm> hamtable giobe. The foUowing is the distribution or' population in iuigland?e colonies and dependencies:—lα Europe 47'_ > ,502, Indian Empire 2 , J1,3b'1,t)0b , other A-iiatic possp«*ii>iit> 15,208,808, W«et Atrica^S,U'J2,loe 3 .SoutJi Atuiica ti.074,527 » ot-her African poesassroiis 7,302,995 North America 5,(313,200, West Indies and Central America 1,b'14,400, South America 21)8,119, Australian Oomtnofc ■wealUi 3,83b',15-4, New Zealand 816,214 other Australasian possessions &i 2,376* Tlio ratio of inhabitants par square ■mile is:—United Kingdom 312.4, Isfo of Man aiul Cluuwk?! Islands 496.81 Eumpean posscss-oiis 127.G, Asiatic potsessions 1tj1.7. Indian .Bmniro 1720--West Africa 52.0, South Africa 4,1) ct'her African pa'scesiens 16.0, Xorti America 1.4, West Indies and Cenirjl', America 82.6, South. Anienica 2.7, AtutruJian Commonwealth 1.3, New Zealand 7.8. other Australasian 5.(h ■'' For the whole .Empire the aggregate * rate of increase of population l a great decline in the last daoeannun.^- , Thas was mainly due to the fall in the- j rate of the increase of tihe population; < of the Indian Empire, in the ft»fcin»"; v States and agencies of which there ww/' v an actual decrean* of 5.5 per cent. eluding India, the rate of actual crease in <the Empire, which had been'? 11.8 per oont. betwoen> 1861 and 1871 r fc* rose to 14.5 per con*., between 1871 wM. 1881, and then fell to 11.6 ajid 8.6 paKf cent. respectively in tho next twe'fi deoennia. Tho decline in tie rato.dfe •actual increase is, •therefore, not oflSlr fined to the India.n. Empire. A factor connected -with tliie fall is iutsi continued deprcssicn of tho which 'has now become general in all countries. In Australasia, and pecially Ln Soutih AoisfcnaJLa, in and in New South Wales (where matter lias recently been roported VgifrM by a Eoyal Ccaiimisyion) the falj birtHii-rate is remarkable. The gmjm~'~ r ?' growth of popu.la.tion is not in ttifMM;vlarge towns, bu.b in. tlicso of iiipi|% size. It is tho same in tho a 3 in Engknd. In the Comnro-n\rcal'..h tne aboriginal pQBQiiM tion nunabens about 65,000, are 43,143 Moods in New *bmrt 5.3 per cent, of tihe populations ■In Earopean oounibnies, \ritih few tioas, the females outiiumbe-r two such, i> the case in the United Kifl§|| dom and in several of the eokmes/ biSifi in the latter and more populous oobgl nies the reverse is the case. The OOeSif tion ac to Jtnarroago of tJie poptrktioii ljf| a suibjeot of eaujuiry undertaken *m| nearly all the colonial ceneus autbo»|| ties; but ow-img to the diverse taons prevailing in the several ooiuM tries it is necessanily treatod of varying amounts of detail. In table headed "Braportion per 1000 ing," it is shoarn that there are New Zealand 6-57 unmarried, 3(36 rafts; ried and 37 widowed. The highest portions of inaTried persons *ro foura in tho ludian Empire. Great difficuttidf present fliemselves when attempts a£|| made to analyse Uie occu pat rone of iSsm people; while in the Engljsli oensue fIX .port, the standa.rd of comparison, is baew£ on the total male and female popu&w tions refspeotively, aged 10 j-ears aim upward, it is ntoe&sary in the prenenft case to base the standard of c<mipari£aa| on the total male and female pcpulhg' tions respccHvely at all agree, because the oocujM.taoii6 in a number of the! coloTiiial returns are not tabulated ire combination with ages. Judged bj' niinil>ors enß«{jod therein, the agrictiHti*;* ral indiiitry is cue of the most impo(f_ taut in the British Empire. It is ]x>i&t« . od out in the matter of religion, that figures arc available in the UniUJda Kingdom as the question of faith i&l not raised in tfhe oensue returns. &\