The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 19. EMPIRE STATISTICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8088, 19 April 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 19. EMPIRE STATISTICS.

The report of the census of the British Empire for the year 1901, with a summary and detailed tables fronl the several colonies, etc., area, houses, and population, also population classified by ages, condition as to marriage, occupations, birth-places, religions, degrees of education, and infirmities, have been issued as a Blue Book. The total area of the British Empire in 1901 was, as nearly as can be ascertained, 11,908,878 square miles. This is an increase of nearly 40 per cent, on the total area in 1861, so that the Empire now amounts to more than one-fifth of tlio' land surface of the globe. The population of the British Empire at or about the date of the census of 1901 had reached a total of about 400,000000. The distribution of this huge number in various continents was approximately as follows: —In Asia, more than 800 millions; in Africa, about 18 millions; in America, 7£ millions; in Australasia, more than 5 millions; in our Mediterranean possessions, nearly half a million; and in the islands of the British seas, 150,000; while the remaining 11| millions were enumerated within the limits of the United Kingdom. For the whole Empire the aggregate rate of increase of population showed a great decline in the last decennium. This was mainly due to the fall in rate of increase of the population of India, in the native states and agencies, of which there was an actual decrease of 5.5 per cent, excluding India, The rate of increase for the rest of the Empire fell from 11.6 in 188191 to 8.6 per cent, in 1891-1901. In the United Kingdom there were 342.4 persons to a square mile, and in the Indian Empire 172, while in the Dominion of Canada and in the Australian Commonwealth the density was as low as 1.4 and 1.8 persons per square mile respectively.