26o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Christians. Jews 



Cherson 54.30 34.15 



Volkynia 53.31 35.67 



Taurida 52.51 34.48 



Mohileff 52.30 28.16 



Podolia 52.06 34.66 



Grodno 50.96 29.84 



Chernigoff 50.67 28.13 



Poltava 49.00 36.51 



Witebsk 46.85 31.00 



Wilna 45.10 21.72 



Bessarabia 44.46 27.91 



Kovno 40.98 27.34 



An attempt has been made by several statisticians to find some 

 geographical differences in the birth rates of Europe. Sundbarg points 

 out that some striking differences are to be noted in the rates when 

 eastern Europe is compared with western Europe. He calculated an 

 annual rate per 1,000 population for eastern Europe, 46.1 ; for western 

 Europe, 33.6 ; southwest, only 32.3, and northwest, 34.7. On the whole, 

 his calculations are well-founded, although there are some exceptions 

 which are attributed to social conditions of a local nature. A glance 

 at the table of the birth rates of the Jews in various European coun- 

 tries shows that while their fertility is everywhere lower than that of 

 the christians, still in general they follow the rule laid down by Sund- 

 barg. Taking Eussia, Poland and Galicia as typical of eastern Europe, 

 we find that the rates for the Jews are highest, reaching 38.01 in 

 Galicia. Considering Bavaria as typical of the west, we find here the 

 lowest rate, only 17. Amsterdam is intermediate between these two, 

 only 24.82, corresponding roughly to the northwest of Europe. For 

 the south there are no available data, except some collected in the 

 middle of the last century (1861) showing that in Tuscany the birth 

 rate was 27.2 among the Jews as against 39.0 among the christians. 



It thus appears that the Jews follow quite closely the rates observed 

 in Europe. The highest rates are observed in the east, the lowest in 

 the west, etc. It is also known that in Denmark the birth rate of the 

 Jews is very low, corresponding to the north, and in France conditions 

 are similar to those observed among the French. In general it can be 

 stated that with some local exceptions Sundbarg's rule holds as good 

 for Jews as for non-Jews in Europe. 



It would be misleading to explain the lower birth rates of the Jews 

 when compared with christians as due to a physiological characteristic 

 having as its cause a peculiar ethnic trait. The facts that the rates are 

 not everywhere the same, but show wide variations, and that these 

 variations correspond more or less closely to those observed among 

 the non-Jewish population, are against any such theory. A close study 

 of certain social conditions of the Jews offers a more reliable explana- 

 tion. 



