402 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



themselves, there has apparently been an increase of population 

 since 1880 of 125,000,000, as a matter of fact the difference between 

 the estimated population of 1880 (1,401,000,000, after deducting 

 the excess credited to China) and that of 1891 (1,480,000,000) is 

 only 79,000,000. This apparent decrease in the rate of growth is 

 really due to the reductions which the editors have felt bound to 

 make on the basis of more careful investigations in the estimates 

 of the population of certain regions. Thus, they have reduced 

 the population of Africa by 38,000,000, while in Asia a deduction 

 of 15,000,000 has been effected. All this shows how conscientiously 

 and critically the editors have gone about their laborious task, 

 and leads us to place the more confidence in the results. Even in 

 Europe there are considerable differences between the areas now 

 accepted and those given in previous issues ; the population sta- 

 tistics have been changed throughout. 



The following table gives the area and population of the great 

 divisions of the earth's surface according to the latest data : 



Europe * 



Asia f 



Africa \ 



America * 



Australia || . . . . 

 Oceanic Islands. 

 Polar recrions . . 



Total 



Square miles. 



17,530,686 

 11,2'7'7,3G4 

 14,801,402 



2,991,442 

 733,120 



1,730,810 



Population. 



52,821,684 



357,379,000 



825,954,000 



163,953,000 



121,713,000 



3,230,000 



7,420,000 



80,400 



1,479,729,400 



To 1 square mile. 



94 

 47 

 14 

 8 

 1 

 10 



* Without Iceland, Nova Zembla, Atlantic islands, etc. 

 \ Without Madagascar, etc. * Without arctic regions. 



f Without arctic islands. 



II The continent and Tasmania. 



More recent figures given in the appendix for one or two 

 countries (British India, the Netherlands, etc.) would make no 

 essential difference in the great total. This total is greater by 

 over 12,000,000 than the estimate of Mr. Ravenstein in his recent 

 paper on the Lands of the Globe still Available for European 

 Settlement; but then Mr. Ravenstein reduces the population of 

 Africa by about 30,000,000 below the estimate of Wagner and 

 Supan. 



Among European countries Belgium still exceeds all others in 

 density of population ; the proportion is 530 persons to a square 

 mile. Belgium is followed by Holland, with 365 to the square 

 mile, and the United Kingdom with 312. If we take England 

 alone we find the density to be close on 480 to the square mile, 

 still considerably below that of Belgium. The density in Scot- 

 land is only about one fourth that of England, while that of 

 Ireland is one third. The most thinly populated countries in 

 Europe are Norway and Finland, which have only sixteen people 

 to the square mile. Turkey occupies considerable space in the 



