DENSITY OF POPULATION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3360, 15 August 1927, Page 7

DENSITY OF POPULATION.

England and Wales make up the most densely populated country in the world, according to report now published by the Government Office midway between the last census and the next one. The number of inhabitants shown by the figures for 1.921 is 250.6 per square kilometer (compared with 61.0 in Scotland and 152.7 in the United Kingdom). Belgium, the closest rival, with 245.2. the Netherlands with 200.7, Japan with with 125.0, are the only other countries of the world with over 100 inhabitants per square kilometer, the London “Economist” points out in its summary of census revelations. The density of population has steadily increased since the beginning of the \9th century, and its growth has been associated with a corresponding increase in urbanisation concerning which we read: “In 1921, 79.3 per cent, of the population lived in urban districts, as against 78.1 per cent, in 1911, 77.0 per cent, in 1901, and 72.0, per cent, in 1891. The pace of urbanization is shown by the proportions of persons massed in cities of various sizes. It is true that in the twelve largest cities, with populations of over 250,000 each, the proportion of tire total population was practically unchanged,. being 25.4 per cent, in 1911 and 25.5 per cent, in 1921; but in the 34 towns with 100,000 to 250,000 inhabitants the proportion increased from 12.6 per cent, ip 1911 to 13.6 per cent, in 1921, in tin; 55 towns with 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants the proportion increased from 9.9 per cent, to 10.2 per cent., and in the 157 towns with 20.000 to 50,000 inhabitants the proportion increased' from 12.8 per cent, to 13.1 per cent. Study of the rates of growth of towns of different sizes suggests that a figure in the heighbourliood of between 50,000 and 100,000 roughly marks the limit of optimum aggregation, and that, i# more recent years, the rate of increase in the smaller towns appears to have been relatively higher, and that of the larger towns relatively lower, than before. “This tendency,’ states the Report, ‘is probably associated with the changes in the organisation of industry which are gradually being brought about by factors tending to the dispersion rather than the concentration of populatidn, such as the recent development in transport, the increasing use of electrical power, which can be transmitted over long distances with comparative economy, the necessity of providing workers with more adequate houses and healthier environment; so that the most effective concentration of individuals in urban units may in the future be a diminishing one and the decline in the rate of growth set in earlier than it has in the past.” The census total of population numbers 37,886,699 of whom 18,075,239 were males and 19,811,460 females; the excess of females over males being larger now both absolutely and relatively than ever before. “The Economist” also notes that along with the net loss of inhabitants is a general aging of the population, the average age being 30.6 years in 1921, as compared with 28.6 in 1911 and 26.2 in 1881. “Although the total population is the largest ever recorded, the increase in the population between 1911 and 1921, which amounted to 1,816,000 persons, is smaller than that between aiiy two censuses since the Napoleonic wars, and the rate of increase, which was 4.93 per cent., is the smallest in the census records. The retarded 'growth of the population relleets the influence of the war both v in the increased number of deaths and in the decreased number of’births—for, although the decline, in the birth-rate was partly due to other causes, and had begun well before 1914, the war greatly accentuated it.” Few people would realise until the census statistics are seen, says “The Economist,” that less than two-fifths of the occupied population Avere engaged in manufacture, only a little over one-half in fishing, agriculture, mining and quarrying and manufacturing and over onefifth in transport and communications and commerce and finance.” Crowding produces the major problem of this era; “so great a population can obviously never be fed by the produce of so limited a territory, or, at least, not fed at present standards of living.” Allied to this croAvding in space is eroAvding in time; the people live longer, and this greater longevity forces’ us to care most particularly for the education, training, and health of the nation.