CROWINC STEADILY IN POPULATION.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XI, 12 September 1896, Page 342

CROWINC STEADILY IN POPULATION.

The population of the great cities of the world advances so quickly that the figures of the accepted books of reference need revision as soon as they are published. For example, according to the latest annuals and yearly books, the population of Paris is within 2 500,000, but the census taken last March shows it to be 2.511,955, or 87,250 inhabitants more than was shown by the census of 1891. That is to say, Paris is growing at the rate of 17,450 inhabitants per annum. This, however, is less than the rate of growth of other European cipitils, and is considerably less than the antecedent growth of Paris itself. Between 1872 and 1876 that amounted to an annual increase of 34,753, between 1876 and 1881 of 45,840 and between 1886 and 1891 of 32,652 inhabitants. The figures of the population of London must also be revised in view of the fact that they are now 4.392,346—an increase of 180.604 in five years, or at the rate of 36,120 per annum. Berlin, to which the almanac-makers give 1.579 244, has actually 1,677,135 inhabitants, or more than two and a half times what it had about the beginning of the era of Prns , -ian greatness in 1864. Vienna keeps growing at tbe rate of 25.000 a year, but St. Peterabnrg barely reaches half this rate of annual increase. Till tbe greater New York is a more positive entity than can be created by permissive legislation, Paris mnst continue to rank as tbe second city of the world, leaving New York at the head of the nine cities whose population is between the 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 mark. • There is one tendency of the Parisian population, as shown by the recent census, which is probably common to all civilized capitals—the movement from the centre to the suburbs. In spite of the influx of 87,250 new inhabitants since 1891, there has been in all but two of the central arrondissements a positive loss of popula-

tion. For tbe whole ten of these divisions tbe loss amounts to 10,205 inhabitants. Thia has been noted aa a proof of tbe desire of Parisians to desert the crowded quarters of the city for those where they can find more light and air. It appears that the movement has gone on in spite of the obstinate determination of the Municipal Council to obetruct it. The growth of London is almost entirely on the outer rim, and tbe lower wards of New Yotk have for years manifested the Parisian tendency to depopulation. But New York has the compensation, which Paris has not, of seeing tbe assessed valuations of thinly populated quarters grow with the multiplication of costly office buildings even faster than the movement of its people uptown and to outlying suburbs.