THE CONDITIOXS OF RURAL LIFE DT I913-IJI4 65 



Demographic and General Economic Condiiions. 



If the total number of iuhabitants and the number of births in the 

 401 niral districts distributed among eight large regions (i) in 18S1 and in 

 1911. respectively, be compared, it is discovered that in thirty years these 

 districts have lost 9,000 out of 312,000 inhabitants or nearly 3 per cent. 

 One hundred of them have however suffered an increase in their population, 

 generally slight, it is true, but in several cases, especially in the regions 

 of the north and east where prosperous industries have been established, 

 considerable. If these latter cases be excluded, the depopulation will seem 

 much more serious than the percentage we have given indicates. In fact, 

 except in Brittan}-, there are no purely agricultural districts in which the 

 number of inhabitants has increased. The total number of births was 7,966 

 or 255 per 10,000 inhabitants in 18S1, and only 6,572 or 217 per id, 000 

 in 1911. The ratio is however superior to that arrived at for all France 

 where the number of births per 10,000 inhabitants was 249 in 18S1 and 187 

 in 1911. Thus in the whole country births diminished by 25 per cent., but 

 in the obsen-ed districts onl\- by 15 per cent. In Region M^II (West) the 

 diminution was almost negligible, but in the south-east it was more than 

 25 per cent. 



The following table shows the distribution of families in the obser\-ed 

 districts according to the occupation of the head of each household. Of 

 the whole number of families the percentage having a head whose pursuit 

 is agricultural, whether hs be a landowning or a tenant farmer, an agricul- 

 tural labourer or a farm ser^-ant, is 54. In Region I (north) this percentage 

 is only 38, in Region II (east) 42, in Region HI (south-east) 53. 1\\ the 

 other regions some two thirds of the heads of families are tillers of the soil. 

 While in Region VI (Central ^lassif) and Regions IV and V (south) most of 

 them own the land they cultivate, in the west they are mainly agricultural 

 labourers or tenant farmers. In the ^ illages of Region VIII (Brittany and 

 Normandy) in particular more than a third of the total number of heads 

 of families is made up of journeymen and other agricultural labourers and 

 farm ser\'ants. 



The families of tenant farmers, metayers and settlers constitute altoge- 

 ther one tenth of the total number — in the districts of the South-West 

 Region, where metayage is common, as much as one fifth. 



(1) These regions comprise the follovdng departments: Region I : Xord, Oise, Seine-et-Oise, 

 Somrne. Region II : Ardennes, Meunhe-et-Moselle, Meiise, Vosges, Haute-Mame, Aube, Yoime, 

 Cote-d'Or, Haute-Saone, Sa6ne-et-Ivoire, Belfori. Region III\: Am, Doubs, Jura, Savoie, Haute- 

 Savoic, Is^re, Basses-Alpes. Hautes-Alpes. Region IV: Alpes-Maritimes , Var, Bouches-du- 

 Rhdne, Vaucluse, Ard»}che, Card, Dr6me. Region V : IvOt-et-Garonne, Gironde, Landes,Basse- 

 Pj-renees, Haute-Garoune. Region VI : Correze, Aveyron, I^z^re, Haute- Vienne , Crease, 

 Haute-I/oire. Region VII : Charente, Indre-et-I,oire, I,oire, I/)iret, Eure-et-Loire, Sarthe, 

 Mayemie. Region VIII: Eure, Calvados, Ome, Seine-Inf^rieure, C6tes-du-Nord , Finistere, 

 Morbihan. 



