Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/253

Rh the birth-rate of all the other countries of Europe greatly increased, that of France steadily declined. In 1801, the number of births in France was 1,007,000, by 1836 the number had fallen to 927,000, in 1876, it was 847,000; in 1896, 807,000; in 1901, 857,114 and in 1911, 742,114. In 1897 the number of births exceeded the number of deaths by 108,000; in 1902 the excess was 83,000; in 1906 it was only 26,000 and in 1911 there was, as I have said, a deficit of 34,869, an amount equal to the loss of a city the size of Luneville, Verdun or Bar-le-Duc.

While the natural increase in the population of France has for many years been a negligible quantity, the average annual excess of legitimate births over deaths in Germany is at present in the neighborhood of 750,000 (last year it was 900,000); in Austria-Hungary more than 600,000; in the United Kingdom nearly 500,000 and in Italy more than 300,000. The fact that Germany in particular is adding by natural increase nearly a million souls to her human resources every year, while France is not only adding nothing to hers, but, on the contrary, is losing a portion of what she has, is not only a source of disquietude, but of genuine alarm. In a sense Von Moltke did not exaggerate when he said Germany is gaining every year a battle over France by reason of the addition to her population of nearly a million souls. Nor did M. deFoville, of the Institute, when he declared that France is losing every fifteen years four army corps.

The recent census statistics show a declining birth-rate in all the departments without exception. In many of them the rate of mortality exceeds the birth-rate by a third, while in some it is twice as great. From 1810 to 1911, the birth-rate for France, as a whole, decreased from 31.8 per thousand to 19.6, while in some departments, like Garonne, it is only 13.6; in certain parts of Normandy and Gascony it is as low as 10.9 and even 8. According to statistics published by the city of Paris in April of last year there was an average of but one birth in the capital for every thirty families during the past year.

Parallel with the decreasing birth-rate has gone a steady diminution in the size of French families. In 1800 each household had an average of 4.24 children; in 1860 it had fallen to 3.16, now it is slightly more than two and among many categories of persons like the wealthy of Paris, poorly paid state employés and small landed proprietors in certain provinces it is still smaller, in some cases being as low as 1.5.

According to official statistics published in 1908 by the ministry of labor, there were 1,804,710 families in France that had no children; 2,966,171 that had only one child; 2,661,978 that had two; 1,643,415, that had three, and only 987,392 that had four. Altogether there were only 2,238,780 families having four or more children, leaving 9,076,274 families having from but one to three or none at all.