ENGLAND’S POPULATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 9 April 1934, Page 2

ENGLAND’S POPULATION

INTERESTING FIGURES The latest tables published by the Registrar-General, says the “Morning Rost,’ 1 shows that the population of England and Wales passed ' the forty million mark in the middle of 1932; that there were in that year as many marriages per thousand as there were births and that the latter touched the lowest recorded figure for this country, only Sweden, Germany and Austria having lower birth rates. These figures make one think. The steadily decreasing birth-rate—despite the comforting statement that more boys are born than girls, so repairing the ravages of the war years—would be a subject for considerable lamentation if, first, one could feel assured that the quality of newcomer was worthy of England’s robust progenitors, and secondly, if there were any guarantee of the early disappearance of unemployment in England. Unfortunately, neither of these conditions seems like being fulfilled, unless very deliberate measures are taken, first, to improve the stock, and, secondly, to spread what population we have more economically throughout the British Dominions. It niusfc often seem extraordinary,- if not incomprehensible, to other nations, that the English prefer to coop themselces up m an area of little more than 50,000 square miles, when, overseas, there are ? Gm PW lands totalling nearly f,000,000 square miles in extent.