BIRTH RATE IN GERMANY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15131, 27 January 1917, Page 4

BIRTH RATE IN GERMANY.

Extraordinary declines in the birthrate in Germany and Austria are'"' chronicled ia a recent issue of the German Social Science Journal. The compiler of the figures, Dr. H, Fehlinger, states that from July, 1914, till December, 1915, the population of Berlin (not reckoning the suburbs) decreased from 2,053,302 to 1,835,094. From the statistics quoted in various newspapers it appears that the number of females* increased from 1,075,549 to 1,092,088, but that of males declined from 977,753 to 743,006. During the period from May to Debember, 1914, 25,689 births occurred, "which number decreased to 19,243, or by 25.1 per cent, in the same period of 1915. The numbers who died before they had reached the age of 12 months declined during 1916 in comparisdn with 1914 in about the same degree as the number of births. Iff 1914 15,976 men and 16,247 women died in Berlin, against respectively 14,829 and 14,951 in 1916, a decline of respectively 7 and I.9"per cent. In Munich the number of births during May to December diminished from 8367 in 1914 to 6088 in 1915, or by 27 per cent- Of every 1000 children born 147 died within the first year in 1914. and 149 in 1915. The total number of deaths declined from 9623 to 9384- _ In 1914 4912 men and 4711 women died, and in 1915 respectively 3864 and 4520. Similar phenomena are noticed in Dresden and Hamburg. In Dresden the number of births decreased from 7189 in 1914, to 4996 in 1915,. during the months from July to December, or by more than 30 per cent; the number of deaths from 4909 to 4346, During the same period the number of births in Hamburg'decreased from 15,440 to 10,189, or \y 34 per cent: that of deaths from 9235 to 8171. The paper adds that conditions are much worse in Austria. Whilst up till October, . 1915, the birth-rate - exceeded the > death-rate in the above-mentioned German towns, the position, was just the reverse in Vienna. The number of births decreased from 8036 in Janu- - ary, 1915, to 1083 in December, 1915. Every ifionth of that year the number of deaths was larger than that of births. In Prague the birth-rate declined as much as 44 per cent in 1915, in comparison with 1914.