THE FRENCH CENSUS OF 1876.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1611, 19 April 1879, Page 4

THE FRENCH CENSUS OF 1876.

The reports of the census taken in Francs in 1876, which have been recently published, show a total population of 36,900,000, an increase of 800,000 over 1872 including 200,000 immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine. The increase is confined to 68 departments, while in 19 there has been a decrease. The most notable gain has been in the cities, amounting in the four years to 10J per cent, in Bordeaux, 7! in Paris, 6 in Lyons, and 2 in Marseilles. Some departments show more increase in the country than in the city. In 1851 the urban was 25£ per cent., the rural of the whole population; in 1876 the proportions were 32 k and 67k- In California the towns, counting one to each county —and a Californian county is, on an average, as large as a French department—have about 60 per cent, of the population of the State—a ratio that is probably not to bo found in any other country, unless it be England. France has 204 cities, each having more than 100,000 inhabitants.

The French population is divided into 10,000,000 households, occupying 7,483,469 houses, with 11,000,000 minors, 7,700,000 bachelors and spinsters, 15,000,000 husbands and wives, and 3,000,000 widows. The minors and celibates, together, make up 51, the married people 41, and the widows 8 per cent,, The minors under 15 are 10,000,000 ; the persons between 15 and 60, inclusive, 22,500,000; those over 60, 4,400,000. The average age of the population in 1877 was 31 years and 11 months ; in 1876, it was 31 years and 8 months. Agriculture employs 53 per cent, of the people; manufacturing industry, 26; commerce, 14; the liberal professions, 4 per cent.; and 9 per cent, lire on their incomes. Of the 18,968,000 agriculturists, 10,620,000 till their own lauds.