Birth-rate of Paris.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 15 May 1914, Page 8

Birth-rate of Paris.

The annual report on the birth' rate of Paris has just been Issued by Dr. Bertillon, and is the most alarming thus far recorded. The most significant passage, which also sums' up the statistics of the report reads as follows :—"The natality is very feeble ; the births are rarer and rarer. Never has their number be*n so few for over half a century. In 1861, when there were 1,696,141 inhabitants,- 53,570 births were registered, whereas, for 1912, with a population of 2,870,000, only 48,230 births were registered." In commenting on the foregoing passage, " L'lntransigeant" says : —" Th-us it will be seen that while the population of Paris has nearly doubled in half a century, the number of births is even less. If the progression on this basis continues, the situation will soon become disastrous. Averaging the last fifty years, only one birth was registered in Paris per annum for every sixty-two inhabitants, which works out pffjjktically at one for every thirty households."