| Yearly Number of Births per 1000 Inhabitants. | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1881–5 | 1906–10 | |
| Russia (European) | 49.1 | 47.7[[4]] |
| Hungary | 44.6 | 36.7 |
| German Empire | 37.0 | 34.3[[4]] |
| Spain | 36.4 | 33.6 |
| Austria | 38.2 | 33.6 |
| Italy | 38.0 | 32.6 |
| The Netherlands | 34.8 | 29.6 |
| Belgium | 30.7 | 27.7[[4]] |
| England and Wales | 33.5 | 26.6 |
| France | 24.7 | 19.7 |
[4]. Figures for previous five years.
The countries are arranged in order of their 1906–10 rates.
By subtracting the figures in the second column from the first we obtain the fall in the rates between 1881–5 and 1906–10. Russia, in 1910, had the highest birth rate, and had suffered the slightest diminution, only 1.4 per thousand. Curiously Hungary, standing second in line, showed the greatest fall, 7.9. England and Wales, far down the scale, had a drop of 6.9 per thousand. Italy, The Netherlands, France, and Austria kept a fairly even pace with a fall of around 5. Belgium, Spain, and the German Empire lost only about 3 per thousand.
Much discussion has arisen concerning the cause of this decline. Two distinct stages occur in the fecundity of animal life. In the species below the human race it is checked by biological causes. In the human race it is checked by social and economic causes. As the scale of life rises, the number of offspring become fewer. The higher the animal, the fewer the offspring.
When we reach the human animal, we find in addition to pestilence, war, and “acts of God,” various forms of voluntary check. Semi-civilized countries manage the affair rather crudely; in India the Ganges is hardly yet free from infant corpses, and in China girl babies show an assisted mortality. More civilized countries limit the birth rate more felicitously, reducing the number of marriages and advancing the age of marriage, by imposing social, ethical, and financial obligations. This decreases the number of possible children. These indirect checks held back the increase of population so slightly, evenly and over so long a period as to be hardly perceptible. In the seventies appeared a phenomenon of spectacular novelty—the small family. Harmless methods of contraception had been perfected, the knowledge disseminated, and the means supplied. The birth rate, which had slowly declined through aeons, from eggs by the millions to yearly babies, dropped with dizzying rapidity.
As the birth rates of the nations fall, so fall the death rates. Here are the death rates for the same ten nations for the same years as the previous birth rate table.
| Yearly Number of Deaths per 1,000 Inhabitants | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1881–5 | 1906–10 | |
| Russia (European) | 35.4 | 30.9[[5]] |
| Hungary | 33.1 | 25.0 |
| Spain | 32.6 | 24.3 |
| Austria | 30.1 | 22.3 |
| Italy | 27.3 | 21.0 |
| German Empire | 25.3 | 19.9[[5]] |
| France | 22.2 | 19.2 |
| Belgium | 20.6 | 17.0[[5]] |
| England and Wales | 19.4 | 14.7 |
| The Netherlands | 21.4 | 14.3 |
[5]. Figures for previous five years.
A comparison of the two tables shows immediately that the countries having the highest birth rate have also the highest death rate. Russia, which heads the list in births, heads the list in deaths. Hungary comes second in both lists. Next come, in a slightly altered order, the four countries, German Empire, Spain, Austria and Italy. An exception occurs in France which has the unusual combination of a low birth rate and a medium death rate. Belgium, and England and Wales occupy the same position in both lists with low birth rates and low death rates. The Netherlands is the notable country with its medium birth rate and its low death rate. The Neo-Malthusians love to mention at this point that this country has governmental encouragement in teaching contraception.