A CENSUS OF SCOTLAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 7 August 1931, Page 5

A CENSUS OF SCOTLAND

A POPULATION DECREASE

The recent census of Scotland disclosed a total population of 4,842,551, which is 39,943 fewer than in 1921. “Ever since the taking of the first census more than a hundred years ago the population of Scotland has shown an increase, though sometimes a small one, at each decennial reckoning,” says the London “Daily Telegraph.” “Now the long process of national growth is not merely checked but reversed. Grave questions are forced on public consideration. Is this change a temporary consequence of passing economic conditions, or have we come to the end of that great expansion of population which followed industrial development ? Are we at the beginning of an epoch of declining numbers? The decrease now proved in Scotland has not come as a surprise. The annual estimates of the Registrar-General suggest that the decline began, though it has not been steady, in 192.’!, There is obviously operative that general rule which all over the world is ordaining that a population with a high standard of living shall diminish its rate of increase. The special factor appears to be that the rate of migration from Scotland, in spite of the diminished flow to the Dominions and the United States, has not decreased in proportion to the falling birth rate. Depopulation of Scotland is, indeed, far off, hut a depopulation of some of the rural areas appears to be piogressive.”