POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21710, 30 July 1932, Page 20

POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA

FALLING BIRTH RATE (From Oub Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 21. The latest figures give the population of Australia on March 31 as 6,539,270, consisting of 3,330,003 males and 3;209,267 females. This represented an increase of 13,350 in three months. The natural increase for the year ended March 31 was 58,305, compared with an average natural increase of 75,686 since the census of 1921. The Australian death rate has fallen during the last 11 years, but birth rates have been steadily falling at a rather more rapid pace, so that the net result has been a falling rate of natural increase. Per 1000 of mean population the rate of increase was 15.1 in 1921, 13.7 in 1925, 11.3 in 1930, and 9.5 in 1931. An exceptionally low birth rate in 1931, for which depressed economic conditions were mainly responsible, . contributed to the low rate of natural increase for that year. The first quarter of 1932, with a natural increase of 14,613, showed a slight improvement on the two preceding quarters, but was the lowest first quarter for more than 20 years. The following table shows how Australia stands in comparison with other countries: —

The excess of departures over arrivals, which has come to be expected during the last two years, was reduced in the year ended March 31 last to 7742, an improvement for which the first quarter of 1932,-with an excess of departures numbering only 1263 was largely responsible;

Natural Increase Per 1000. 1921 1930 1931 Australia .. .. 15.1 11.3 9.5 New Zealand .. 14.7 10.2 10.1 Canada .. . . .. 17.9 13.5 — Germany .. .. 11.3 England and Wales 10.3 6.5 4,9 _ Scotland .. .. 11.7 6.3 —