FRENCH BIRTH-RATE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 333, 21 October 1908, Page 14

FRENCH BIRTH-RATE.

STARTLING' STATISTICS AS TO DEPOPUo.u as XAO lation * A statistical review, of the decline in .the birth-rate in France published in "Opinion" by M. de Foville, member of the Institute and.president of the Academie. des Sciences: Morales et Politiques, accentuates the .national gravity of the question. The latest figures. prove that .France as a . nation is slowly but surely dying. In 100 years the birth-rate has fallen from 32 per 1000 to 19.7, and at tHe'present moment, for the first time in history, and in France alone among nations; the deaths'_ exceed the births. ■ Since the. twentieth century began the decline has continued at the following alarming .rate:—Excess of births over deaths — 1902, 84700t) j 190'3'737000; 1904, 57,0007 ,1905,-.37,000; 1906, 27,000. Last year (1907) zero iwas. reached and. passed.- There were 20;000 more deaths than births. The official returns,are 794,000 and 774,000 unfler these respective heads. The word " depopulation," M. da Foville. points; out, is therefore no exaggeration.- • Is'it,-he asks, the beginning of file end? At this rate Franco will soon be ripe for invasion. ■ It is'-the only fate awaiting a country which is capable of supporting 80,000,000 inhabitants, and is content with half that number. -In 1875 the population of Germany surpassed" that of Franco by 6,000,000; it now;; exceeds it by over 20,000,000. In another 20 years there will be two Germans for every Frenchman, without counting the sons of . the Fatherland scattered'all over the globe by emigration; "Thus France," concludes M. de Foville, "is marching-with "quickened step to her doom."