MORE WIVES THAN HUSBANDS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1813, 28 July 1913, Page 3

MORE WIVES THAN HUSBANDS.

TWO WIDOWS FOR EVERY WIDOWER. The preponderance of females in tho population of England and Wales which has been evident for many years is fullv maintained in the figures given in Vol. VII cf the report of the 1911 Census (published last month). The excess appears, though very unequally, in each ago group except the first (infants) shown in the report. More boys than girls are born—tho average is about 1011 to 1000—but the greater mortality of boys under five years of age—the average is 1171 to lOCO—reduces that sex to a minority in the nest quinquennium. Factors in the feminine preponderance at later stages of lifo are the emigration of young men and the lower mortality among adult women as oompared with men. The preponderance at some of theso subsequent ages is shown in the following comparisonsNo. of No. of women women to every to every 1000 1000 men. Aged. men. 9A_25 ......... "13 55-60 1138 on 35 1091 65—70 1205 ii.s:::: 1077 70-75 ~. w 43-50 ......... 1079 85 & over ..... 1817 . How age and sex constitution differ in urban and rural districts is illustrated in another table, in which tho basis is 100,000 persons at all ages. Between t]ie ages of 15 -and. 20 and 20 and 25 males preponderate in rural districts, tlie figures being:-15-20. 20-25. Males 4899 412G Females 4235 3948 But after that age women resume their numerical excess. . The explanation given is that tho attractions of the towns begin to be felt hv the youn? men of the villages between the ages of 15 and 25. In the urban districts women are the more numerous at every age. Certain to be Old Maids. The 3G,070,192 persons enumerated are classed as follows in relation, to marriage:— Unmarried 20,963.807 Married 13,126.070 Widowed 1,980,615 .Among the unmarried there were 1029 females to 1000 males. The number of wives exceeded the number of husbands bv 131,■198, and wero in tho proportion of 1021 to every 1000 husbands, and the number of widows was 1,361,801, as compared with 615,811 widowers. In 1901 (he ratio of unmarried males to unmarried females of all a?es was 1028 to 1000 ; the wives exceeded the husbands by 10G.15G, and wore in tho proportion of 1019 to 1000. Tho decreaso in tho proportion of married is mc-st apparent in the younger age groups, "no doubt," the report states, "as a consequenco of the modern tendency to postponement of marriage, which chiefly affects these ages." ' \ A comparison with France. Germany, Sweden, and Holland gives England the largest proportion of, young adults, but. if. has fewer children than any except France and fewer old persons proportionately than any except Germany.