Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/268

234 Armistice, due to the great number of immigrants and of persons expelled from foreign states, and to the high marriage-rate, could only be met in an approximate degree by the extensive adoption of a system of house rationing and compulsory billeting.

Vital Statistics. The great increase in the population of the German Empire up to the beginning of the 2Oth century was mainly due to a high birth-rate. Between 1870 and 1900 the birth-rate maintained a level of 36-9 per 1,000 of the average population dur- ing that period. An average of 1,800,000 children were born alive annually. The average surplus of births over deaths amounted approximately to 600,000 annually. The comparative lowness of the birth surplus, if the high level of the birth-rate be taken into consideration, was due to the rather unsatisfactory death-rate. Dur- ing the three decades 1870-1900 the death-rate fluctuated between 21-7 and 31-0 per 1,000 of the average population. From 1900 onwards the birth-rate was steadily on the decrease, and in 1914 it was only 26-8 per 1 ,000 of the average population. Simultaneously, however, the death-rate declined, not only owing to a lower death- rate among adults, but also because of a considerable decrease in infant mortality. The death-rate as a whole declined from 23-2 per 1,000 in 1900 to 15-8 in 1913, and infant mortality from 207 per 1,000 infants born alive to 151. In spite of the declining birth-rate, therefore, the surplus of births over deaths remained at the same level as heretofore. The birth surplus did not entirely cease until a few years before the outbreak of the World War. During the war the birth-rate and the rate of mortality were greatly affected by war conditions. From the middle of 1915 the birth-rate dropped rapidly and reached its lowest point in 1917, namely 13-9 per 1,000 of the population. In this year only 912,109 children were born alive. The rate of mortality rose during the same period. This was due, on the one hand, to the heavy losses by casualties, and, on the other, to the high rate of mortality among civilians, whose health had been gre'atly weakened by the blockade. The highest death- rate was in 1918, when, partly owing to the influenza pandemic, it rose to 24-7. After the Armistice the birth-rate began to recover, and from the middle of 1919 it rose with great rapidity, 1,512,162 chil- dren being born alive in 1920 (26-3 per 1,000 of the pop.), with a surplus of 623,367 births over deaths in that year, the death-rate having sunk practically to the pre-war level. Infant mortality, which in 1913 was 151 per 1,000 born alive, was 164 in 1914, 154 in 1915, 136 in 1916, 150 in 1917, 154 in 1918, 121 in 1919, and 131 in 1920.

For every 1,000 female infants born alive the number of male in- fants was 1,053 in the year 1910, 1,055 in 1915, and 1,080 in 1919. The reasons for this rise in the proportion of male infants have not been fully ascertained; it may probably be attributed to the de- crease in the number of infants born dead. The rate of stillbirths (number born dead per 100 births) had declined from 3-1 in 1900 to 2-99 in 1919, though it rose again to 3-2 in 1920. In the case of stillborn infants, the proportion of the sexes is approximately 100 females to 127 males. A decline in the rate of stillbirths would there- fore result in increasing the proportion of male infants born alive.

During the three decades 1871-1900, approximately 90% of the infants born alive were legitimate and 10% illegitimate. The proportion of illegitimate births has been almost continuously on the increase since 1903. During the war the increase was especially marked. The cause of this increase is to be traced, not so much to a rise in the number of illegitimate births as to the comparatively larger decrease in the number of legitimate births. The number of illegitimate infants to every 1,000 infants born was 91 in 1910, 98 in 1914, 112 in 1915, 115 in 1917, 131 in 1918, and 112 in 1919.

In 1910 the marriage-rate was 7-7 per 1,000 of the population. During the war, the number of marriages decreased materially (4-1 in 1915 and 1916, 4-7 in 1917, 5-4 in 1918), but there was a great increase afterwards (13-9 in 1919, 14-8 in 1920). The number was particularly great in the second quarter of 1920.

Divorces have increased both absolutely and relatively. In 1910 there were 23-3 divorces per 100,000 inhabitants; in 1914 the number had risen to 26-2, and in 1919 it had reached 36-2.

Occupations. Table VI shows the division of the population in 1920 according to occupations, on a basis corresponding to that of the census of occupations taken in 1907.

TABLE VI. Occupation in 1920.

Total population

Persons whose emolument is derived from their chief occu- pation

Members of their families and their domestic servants

A. Agriculture and forestry B. Industry and mining C. Commerce and traffic; hotel-keeping. D. Hired labour, various kinds; personal service E. Public service; profes- sions .... A-E F. Unemployed.

15,271,767 24,833,853

7,730,501 723,292 3,051,149

8,671,666 10,600,512

3,256,063

435,633 1,523,424

6,600,101 14,233,341

4,474,438 287,659 1,527,725

51,610,562 4,764,028

24,487,298 3,141,916

27,123,264 1,622,112

A F. Total population

56,374,590

27,629,214

28,745,3/6

As compared with the Germany of 1907, the agricultural side had in 1920 been somewhat reduced and the industrial enlarged.

Agriculture. In 1913 an inquiry was held as to the way in which the cultivation of the land was distributed. Table VII gives an application of its results to the territories of the Reich as constituted after the war.

By the cession of territory under the Peace Treaty Germany forfeited I4.-8 % of its arable land and 24 % of its vineyards. About one-quarter of the total land of the newly constituted Reich is forest; approximately one-half of the total forest land consists of privately owned forests and the other half, for the most part, of state and communal forests. Two-thirds of the woods consist of conifers. The pine tree is the most common of these; not more than one-third of these coniferous woods consists of trees other than pines. Of this third the larger proportion is formed of fir trees. Of deciduous trees, beeches are the most numerous. One-fifth of the timber is oak. N. Germany is not so rich in forests as central and S. Germany. All the smaller mountain ranges, such as the Black Forest range, the Thuringian and Oden ranges, are wooded. To the N. there is a small stretch of land along the Baltic covered with oaks and beeches. There are practically no forests in the N.W. ; in that region wide stretches of peat-moor predominate.

According to the harvest statistics for Nov. 1920 the chief prod- ucts of the arable land were cultivated over the following areas (in hectares): wheat, 1,381,274; rye, 4,325,247; spelt and winter spelt, 158,802; summer barley, 1,198,462; oats, 3,243,672; potatoes, 2, 459,872; grass, clover and lucerne, 7,703,535; sugar-beet, 326,974.

TABLE VII. Cultivation (in 1,000 hectares').

Houses and

Territories

Land under tillage and gardens

Meadow- land

Pasturage

Fruit Farms

Vine- yards

Forests and Woods

farmyards, waste land and shores, roads,

waterways

Prussia

14,440-1

2,844-8

1,689-4

14-7

2O-2

7,461-7

3,194-8

Bavaria*

3,002-3

1,323-8

247-2

3-5

21-3

2,494-3

493-5

Saxony. .

841-7

174-1

8-4.

0-6

0-3

377-6

91-3

Wiirttemberg

846-9

295-2

48-8

22-3

18-9

604-8

114-0

Baden

561-2

213-5

41-0

o-5

15-0

588-9

87-0

Thuringiaf

606-6

121-1

13-7

2-7

O-I

408-8

79-1

Hesse

365-5

93-7

7-9

3'3

14-4

242-0

42-0

Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

743-5

116-4

66-8

O-I

246-0

143-4

Mecklenburg-Strelitz

138-6

21-7

9-7

64-5

58-4

Oldenburg

191-1

95-o

120-9

O-2

66-8

168-9

Brunswick

187-3

33-1

6-8

0-4

IIO-2

27-5

Anhalt

I37-I

16-9

2-2

o-5

58-5

14-7

Waldeck

47-5

9-0

6-2

43-2

6-2

Schaumburg-Lippe

16-8

4-3

I-I

6-7

5-1

Lippe

64-7

6-8

11-7

O-I

33-o

5-2

Lubeck

15-8

2-4

2-O

4-2

5-5

Bremen

6-2

7-9

5-8

5-4

Hamburg

17-1

3-9

5-9

1-6

14-0

German Reich ,

22,230-0

5.382-6

2,295-6

48-9

91-2

12.812-8

4,556-o

' Excluding Coburg. f Including Coburg.