A careful study of the vital statistics of Germany and Great Britain
reveals the fact that the population of Germany is declining, while
that of Great Britain is increasing. The German Empire, which in June,
1919, at the previous rate of increase should have had 72,000,000
people, will have no more than 64,500,000. Germany as a whole will
have 5 per cent. less population than when the war began. Of those who
have been killed the greater number were men in the prime of life and
energy, whom Germany could least spare. By deaths in the battle zone
the empire has lost at least 3,000,000 men.
The birth rate has sunk to such a figure that by next year the number
of births will have fallen short of what they would have been had
there been no war by 3,333,000. In the same period the annual number
of deaths among the German civilian population, owing to the stress
and anxiety of the war, and sickness, which has been aggravated by
hardships and food troubles, has increased by 1,000,000 over the normal.
While by next year the German Empire will be 7,500,000 lower in
population than it would have been had the war not taken place, the
vitality of the peoples of Austria and Hungary has suffered even more.
The peoples of Austria will be 11 per cent. poorer in numbers next year
than if the war had not taken place. They will be 8 per cent. lower in
numbers than they were in 1914. Hungary will be still worse off. It
will have a population 9 per cent. lower than before the war, and 13
per cent. lower than it would have been if there had been no war.
Meanwhile, despite the losses suffered in the war zone, the British
population has been growing. By the middle of 1919 this population will
be only 3 per cent. lower than it would have been without war. Great
Britain in 1919 will have a larger population than in 1914.