POPULATION DECREASED

Southland Times, Issue 18809, 30 April 1920, Page 2

POPULATION DECREASED

LOSSES IN EUROPE. GREAT BRITAIN'S ALONE INCREASED. The populations of most of the belligerent countries of Europe have diminished enormously since 1914. Great Britain’s alone has increased. According to the latest estimates, the London Observer states, Britain is nearly 700,000 to the good, despite the fact that during the war she lost by the fall in births more than half a million potential lives. The figures —they must be regarded as approximate—for the present year are: —

Germany’s population has d-ecraesed from GS to G5 millions, and to-day her females outnumber her males by nearly two millions. The number of children born during the war in Germany was from onethird to one-half below the normal. Austria’s population has shrunk in much the same proportion, and the women greatly outnumber the men. Vienna’s inhabitants once well over the two-million mark, are to-day about 200,000 below it. The greatest loser of nil, o I course, is Turkey. Shorn by the Peace Treaty of the greater part of her territories, her population falls from 30 millions to six. There is no doubt, too, that Russia has suffered very seriously in population, not only from the war but from the long | (>eriod of famine and tribulation which has I followed. Various figures have been given I from time to time of the decrease in the I population of Pctmgrad and Moscow by i persons who have compared the local conj ditions with those existing during the I war.

1914 1920 England and Wales . 36,960,684 37,500,000 Scotland . 4,747,167 4,900,000 Ireland . 4,381,398 4,380,000 46,089,249 46,784,000