THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 17, 26 January 1878, Page 3

THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH.

(From the " Times." The fourth yearly issue of Behm and Wagner's now well-known statistical work on the population of the earth has just been published. Their estimate of the whole population of the globe for the present year amounts to 1,423,917,000, and the area of the land surface they calculate to be 51,340.800 square miles, thus giving on average density of about 2H people to ono square mile. The data .re apportioned among tho various divisions of the globe ns nearly as possible as follows : Si], miles. luhabi- Dens. tunts. »[. mle. Bnropo :!.778,49,'5 309,178,300 82 Asia |l7,t)7U.3f<:? 824,548,500 48 Africa 11,415,894 10!J,!)21,0OO 17A Australia -V

Polynesia 3,391,910 4,748,000 H Americn I .",,<J87,«10 85,519,800 5} It is curious to notice that tin: urea of the land surface of the globe has decreased since last year's issue as mnch as 83,349 square miles. This decrease mainly affects America, and may, no doubt, greatly he attributed to the result of more accurate and extended survey in the United States. But in all the other divisions of the land surface the area is given as less than lost year, sind this no doubt is also to be attributed mainly to a similar cause. This has had the effect, along with the absolute increase of the population, of slightly raising the density per square mile. The increase of the population estimate for 1870 over that of 1875 is upwards of 27 millions. Of course, it must not be imagined that this enormous increase is entirely caused by the excess of births over deaths ; as the area has been affected by extended survey, so the population figures over their increase in a considerable degree to the results of recent censuses mainly in Europe and in India, and to a more accurate knowledge of regions hitherto imperfectly known. The following are the populations of the various States of Europe, according to latest estimates :- S Germany, 1875 42,728,242 Austro-Hungary, 1870 37,700,000 Switzerland, 1870 ... 2,059,147 Netherlands, 187'. ... 3,809,527 Belgium, 1874 5,386,634 Lexemburg, 1875 ... 205,158 Russia, 1870 71,730,930 Sweden, 1875 4,383,291 Norway, 1875 1,802,882 Denmark, 1876 1.903,000 France, 1872 3(3,102,021 Great Britain, 1870 ... 33,450.000 Spain, 1870 10,557,047 Andorra 12,000 Portugal, 1874 4,298,831 Italy, 1875 27,452,174 Monaco, 187:1 5,741 San Marino, 1574 ... 7,816 Kuropean Turkey ... 8,300,000 Roumania, 1873 5,073,000 Scrvia, 1875 1,377,068 Montenegro 190,000 Greece, 1870 1,457,894