The Decline of Population

Abstract

A DEBATE on the prospective decline of population took place in the House of Lords on June 21. Lord Samuel pointed out that whereas the number of live births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age was 129·8 in 1891, at the census of 1931 it had fallen to 64·3, that is, almost exactly half in the forty-year period. In the earlier period one out of every four married women between the ages of fifteen and forty-five years gave birth to a child in any particular year, while in 1931 this was only true of one in eight. Counterbalancing effects, the fall in the death-rate and the change from emigration to an inward movement of people, was far from equalling this decline in the birth-rate. He advocated family allowances as a means of diminishing the cause and desire for small families. Other measures suggested were housing estates for larger families and removal of the marriage bar in certain occupations such as bank clerks and women teachers. He advised the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole question. Lord Snell said that the real problem is qualitative.rather than quantitative and that the question of age proportion is most important. Lord Dawson of Penn said the prospective fall in population is too great even if wo have regard to quality, as the country has failed to reproduce itself since 1925 and to-day 100 mothers only produce 76 girl babies or future mothers. Contraception is a specialized example of man's gradual control of natural sources and is spreading to all classes and creeds. It should be seen that parents willing to bear their quota of children should not be penalized. In tenement blocks there should be crêches, nursery schools and other necessities, and the health services should be linked up into a connected whole.