POPULATION OF FRANCE.

Lake County Press, Issue 976, 22 August 1901, Page 7

POPULATION OF FRANCE.

PARIS, August 14. The French census shows that the population is 38.641,333, an increase of 412,364 in five years. M. Jaques Bertillon has declared the population of France to be practically 38.600.000, an increase of only 330,000 since 1896. The greatest increase is in Paris and suburbs, which contribute 292,000. This gives only 38,000 to other parts of France. The increase in Paris is due to foreign immigrants, so that France may be said to be stagnant as far as population is concerned. The statistics show (says the ‘Standard’s’ Paris correspondent) that the population in all the great rcountries of Europe, with the exception of France, has never grown with such rapidity as during recent years. In 1850 France was, from the point of view of her population, still the greatest country of Western Europe. Since that epoch Germany has gained 21,000,000 inhabitants; the United Kingdom of England, Ireland, and Scotland, 14,000,000; and Austria-Hungary a little more than 14.000. Of the six great Powers of Europe, France, which stood second on the list, has fallen to the last but one. The excess of births over deaths during the year 1899 was in France 51,394; in the British Isles it was 422,156; in Germany, 795,107; Austro-Hungary, 530,806; and Italy, 385,165. Thus Germany, which gained annually 255,000 inhabitants during the period 1850 to 1860, now gains annually 795,000 inhabitants.