DECLINING POPULATION.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20247, 16 July 1937, Page 10

DECLINING POPULATION.

FUTURE OF BRITISH RACE. INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE. LONDON. June 29. Children of grandchildren of people alive to-day may live to see Britain’s population decline by nine-tenths, and may exist in a country of dying towns, •mpty buildings, and almost silent industry. This is one of the startling conclusions emerging from a preliminary survey of the falling birth-rate by the Population Investigation Committee, in ts first report, published by Reynolds’ News. The committee, on the assumption that recent trends in birth and death rates will continue, gives these estimates of the future population of England and Wales: J9JO, 40,655,000; i 960, 37,4 4 1,000; 1980, 28,837,000; 2000, 17,683.000; 2020, 8,362,000; 2033, 4,426,000. The committee hopes to answer the question how far the motives leading to restriction of families are selfish and how far unselfish. Dr. C. P. Blacker, secretary of the committee, believes that parents who decline to have children because of the possibility of war, slumps and | social upheaval arc still rare.