Spencer Wells and Marion Sims, as a result of their investigations, give a ratio of 1 : 8.
According to Seeligmann, in Hamburg, among marriages of persons in all classes of society, 11.5% are barren. Prochownick found among 2500 women, all of whom had been married for eighteen months or more, and none of whom were more than 40 years of age, that 9% had failed to conceive.
According to Frank and Burdach, who do not publish the figures upon which their estimate is based, only 1 marriage in 50 proves barren. Lever, who also gives merely his percentage result, states that 5% of married women are completely infertile. Hedin, dealing with a Swedish community of 800 persons, states that the percentage of sterile unions is barely 10.
According to Goehlert’s statistical investigations, in the dynasty of the Capets, among 450 marriages, 19.7% were sterile: in the Wittelsbach dynasty (Bavaria), among 177 marriages, 23.7% were sterile; and among the ruling families of Germany (more than 600 marriages), 20.5% were sterile. In this investigation, however, no attention is paid to the age of husband or wife; marriages and remarriages are classed together without discrimination; and those marriages only in which a living child was born are counted as fruitful, so that the unions counted as sterile must contain many in which abortion or stillbirth occurred. In three Esthonian communities in Livonia, Oehren found that among 2799 marriages, 8.4% were barren, but in this instance also stillbirths were ignored.
Ansell reports that of 1919 marriages of women belonging to the upper classes, their mean age being 25 years, 152 proved barren, a proportion of 1 : 12, or about 8%.
Matthews Duncan communicates the following data. In the year 1855, in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, 4447 marriages were contracted, and of these 725 proved barren, a proportion of 1 : 6.1; 75 of these may however be excluded from consideration, inasmuch as the wives were already at the age of 45 or upwards. Among the remaining 4372 marriages, 662 proved barren, a proportion of 1 : 6.6. In other words, 15% of all marriages of women between the ages of 15 and 44 proved sterile.
From France we obtain figures showing a much higher proportion of sterile unions. According to Rochard, in France in the year 1888, of ten million families, two million had no child at all, and two million had each an only child, so that two fifths of the families of France were taking no practical part in the maintenance of the population. According to Chevin, the proportion in France of barren to fruitful marriages is as 1 : 5. 20% are entirely barren, while 24% exhibit only-child-sterility.
From Massachusetts, Morton reports that according to the last census returns, one fifth of all married women are childless.
In England, numerous trustworthy statistics can be obtained regarding the frequency of sterile marriages. The average proportion of barren to fruitful unions was:
| Among the patients in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital | 1 : 8 |
| Among the inhabitants of Grangemouth | 1 : 10 |
| Among the inhabitants of Bathgate | 1 : 10 |
| Among the British peerage | 1 : 6 |
| Among the upper classes | 1 : 12 |
| Among the inhabitants of Edinburgh and Glasgow | 1 : 7 |