AUSTRALIA'S POPULATION

Evening Star, Issue 18532, 15 January 1924, Page 10

AUSTRALIA'S POPULATION

WHY MALES EXCEED FEMALES. VICTORIA THE EXCEPTION. Of the estimated population of the Commonwealth on June 30, 2,897,047 were males and 2,791,045 females (says the ‘ Argus ’). The male population therefore exceeded the female population by 106,002. Probable reasons for this condition of affairs are given in the last ‘ Commonwealth Year Book.’ It is stated that in their sex composition the populations of young countries contrasted sharply with older' countries. In young countries there was invariably a greater number of males than females; whereas in countries that had been long settled there was a reverse tendency. In older countries the populations had grown almost entirely by the excess of births over deaths, which tended to an equality in the numbers of the soxes. In many instances that natural tendency bad been deflected to an excess of females. That had possibly been due to the preponderance of males, among immigrants, the greater propensity of males to travel, the employment of males away from their home country in the army, navy, and mercantile marine, or tho effects of war.' On the other hand, increases in population were largely brought about by immigration, in which males' preponderated. The pioneering conditions of a young country are less attractive to females than to males, and in tho case of Australia tho disabilities which were inseparable from the early stages of settlement were aggravated by the distance from Great Britain and by the circumstances and methods of colonisation. Those conditions, accentuated tho difference in numbers between tho sexes. Exact information regarding tho sexes of tho very early settlers in Australia is not available, but on December 31, 1796, there was an excess of 44 males in every 100 of a total population of 4,100. The development in later years of tho natural industries of the country attracted male rather than' female immigrants, and, .notwithstanding tho equalising tendency of tho expanding factor of natural increase and the heavy loss of males caused by the war, tho population of Australia on December 31, 1922, contained an excess of 1.77 males in every 100 persons. Tho relation between tho degree of tho development of a country and the masculinity of its population is further exemplified by tho existing conditions in the various States of Australia. Among the Stales the greatest masculinity is associated with the smallest density of population; in other words, the masculinity is greater in the less developed States. For instance, in Queensland, which embraces more than 22 per cent, of the area of- Australia, but holds only about 14 per cent, of the total population (1.18 persons to the square mile), the masculinity is 5.49, and in. Western Australia., whole the. density of population is less (0.35 persons to the square mile), the masculinity is greater (6.74). On tho other hand, in Victoria, whore the density is greatest (18.10 lo the square mile), there is an excess of females of 0.82 per 100 persons. If ci tiier New Smith Wales or South Australia is excluded the indexes to masculinity will fall in reverse sequence to the indexes to density for all the other States. Victoria, with a. population of 797,623 males and 809,963 females on June 30, is tho only State in the Commonwealth in which there' are metre -women than men.