SURPLUS WOMEN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 98, 12 July 1946, Page 8

SURPLUS WOMEN

N.Z. CENSUS RETURNS For the first time in the history of the Dominion’s census returns an excess of females over males has been recorded. This is revealed in the latest issue of the Abstract of Statistics in which the final population figures are given for the 1945 census. The Abstract sets out the classification of the population according to sex, including Maoris, as follows:—

1945 North South Island Island Total Males 514,621 267,981 782,602 Females 536,363 284,589 820,952 Totals 1,050,984 552,570 1,603,554 Corresponding figures for the 1936 census were:—

1945 North South Island Island Total Males 477,620 278,606 756,226 Females 461,319 273,939 735,258 Totals 938,939 552,545 1,491,484 “An interesting fact brought out by this comparison is the higher proportion of females in the population as compared with the position in 1936,” the Abstract states. “In 1936 there were 972 females to 1000 males while there were 1049 females to every 1000 males at the date of the 1945 census—the first time an excess of females has been recorded in the history of the Dominion.” This is the position revealed by the census of September 25, 1945. Since then many thousands of servicemen have returned to the Dominion ,and there is every indication that the male section of the community has by now resumed its longestablished and temporarily eclipsed position of numerical superiority. On the night of the census (September 25, 1945), there were 45,381 Service personnel absent from the Dominion, most of these being men. This large total has not been included for the purpose of the comparison made. “Their inclusion,” the Abstract says, “would restore an excess of males, the number of females per 1000 males being 995 if allowance is made for Forces serving overseas.” Any temporary alarm that New Zealand women might have felt at the anouncement that females exceeded males in the 1945 census returns would be dispelled in the light of the later position revealed. Perhaps the women of the Dominion would not be unduly disturbed, whichever way things went.