7,157
1900+------------
|
| 10,573
1906+----------------
|
| 10,938
1907+------------------
|
| 11,515
1908+-------------------
|
| 12,847
1909+----------------------
Mr. Leroy-Beaulieu observes that divorces might lead to remarrying and
so far be in the interest of a larger population. This, however, is
not the case. The great sore of France is the dwindling birth-rate. He
tells us:
When we come to the birth-rate of France here we find the hurt,
the deadly hurt, from which our country suffers. The birth-rate
in France has been declining for a century. This decline has
become so accelerated during the past ten or fifteen years that,
as I feel bound to repeat, we stand confronted by an impending
suicide of the nation.
He gives the following figures to confirm his deduction:
1835–1869
30
+----------------------
| 26
+-------------------
| 1876–1900
| 26
+-------------------
| 22
+----------------
| AT PRESENT
| 20
+--------------
During the first thirty years of the nineteenth century
France recorded more than 30 births per thousand inhabitants;
from 1835 to 1869 the birth-rate oscillated between 30 and
26 per thousand. Leaving out the depopulating years of the
Franco-Prussian War, 1870–71, and years succeeding, which
suffered from this scourge, we find that from 1876 to 1900
the birth-rate was on the decline and ranged from 26 to 22
per thousand. In 1900 it had sunk to 21, and by the latest
statistics it is at present only 20 per thousand inhabitants.
This writer tells us that while in 1801 the birth-rate in France
exceeded the death-rate by 5.1 per thousand inhabitants, the excess
last year was merely 0.3 per thousand. He admits that hygienic
improvements and decreasing deaths among children have lowered the
death-rate, but this can not remedy the decrease of the birth-rate:
If ten homes do not contain among them more than fifteen
children to take the place of twenty parents, there is no
reduction in the death-rate which can prevent the final
diminution of the national population.
(250)