BIRTHRATE IN GERMANY

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1667, 27 January 1917, Page 4

BIRTHRATE IN GERMANY

Extraordinary declines in the birthrate in Germany and Austria are chronicled in a recent issue of the (hernia;; Social Science Journal. The compiler of the figures, Dr 11. Eehlinger, slates (hat from Jijly, 1914, till December. 1915, the population of Berlin (not reckoning the suburbs) decreased from 2,053,302 to 1,835,094. From the statistics quoted ut various newspapers it appears that the number of females increased from 1.075,540 to 1,092,088, but that of males declined from 077,753 to 743,000. During the period from May to December, 1014, 25,080 births occurred, which number decreased to 19.243, or 25.1 per cent., in the same period of .1915, The numbers who died before they had I'cuphed the age of 12 months declined during 10J5 in comparison with 1914 in about the same degree as the number pf births. In 1914 15,970 men and 15,247 jvomen died in Berlin, against respectively 14,829 and 14,951 in 1915, a decline of respectively 7 and 1.9 per cent. In Munich the number of bir| hs during May to December diminished fmg 8,357 in

1914 t o 6.088 in 1915, or by 27 per cent. Of every 1,000 children horn 147 died within the first year in 1914, and 149 in 1915. The total number of deaths declined from 9,023 to 9,384. In 1914 4,912 men and 4,711 women died, and in 1915 respectively 3,804 and 4,520. Similar phenomena are noticed in Dresden and Hamburg. In Dresden the number of births decreased from 7,189 in 1914 to 4,990 in 1915, during the months from July to December, or by more than 30 per cent.; the number of deaths from 4,909 to 4,340. During the same period the number of births in Hamburg decreased from 15,440 to 10,189, or by 34 per cent.; that of deaths from 9,235 to 8,171. The paper adds that conditions are much worse in Austria. Whilst up till October, 1915, the birth-rate exceeded the deathrate in the above-mentioned German towns, the position was just the reverse in Vienna. The number of births decreased from 8,030 in January, 1915, to 1,987 in December, 1915. Every month of that year the number of deaths was larger than that of births. In Prague the birthrate declined as much as 44 per cent, in 1915, in comparison with 1914.