672 



INQUIRY INTO THE POPULATION OF CHINA. 



them the })()pnUitioii of Peking within the walls in 1845 Avas 1,(348,- 

 814, and the number of deaths (exclusive of infants and small chil- 

 dren, say, under 5 years of age) during the whole year w'as 80,438, 

 or about 23.0 per 1,000 inhabitants — by no means an excessive rate. 



The death rate among infants, resulting from the highly insani- 

 tary conditions in which the wdiole population, rich and poor, 

 throughout the Empire constantly lives, and also from female in- 

 fanticide, must be exceedingly high. This latter cause of infant 

 mortality is accountable for a considerably increased death rate in 

 the provinces of Kuang-tnng, Fu-kien, Che-kiang, Shan-hsi, Kiang- 

 hsi, An-hui, and in most of the other provinces of the Empire in a 

 lesser degree." 



Everything considered — especially the fact that in a very large 

 part of China the people live huddled together in towns and villages, 

 and that nowhere is any attempt ever made toward sanitation or the 

 prevention of the spread of contagious disease — it seems quite safe 

 to put the death rate in China at 30 per 1,000 as a minimum. 



northern province that furnishes any large i)roi)ortlon of emigrants fi-om China. 

 The nnnil)er of Chinese outside of China is as follows : 



Country. 



Formosa _ 



Siarn 



Malay Peninsula 

 Sunda Islands. . . 



Hongkong 



America 



Indo-China 



Philippines 



Number. 



2,600,000 

 2, .500, 000 

 985,000 

 600,000 

 274,543 

 272,829 

 150,000 

 80,000 



Country. 



Macao 



Burma 



Aiistralia 



Asiatic Russia 



Japan . . : 



Korea 



Total 



Number. 



74, .568 

 40.000 



a),o(jo 



25,0(>l 

 7, (XX) 

 3,710 



7,642,650 



The following figures show the lunnber of persons that left China and Hong- 

 kong and returned dining the last twenty-six years : 



China and Hongkong. 



Left. 



Returned. 



Amoy (Fu-kien) 



Swatow (Kuang-tung) 

 Kiung-chou (Hai-nan) , 

 Hongkong 



1,629,947 



1,794,298 



298,772 



1.130,000 



1,309,787 



1,807,744 



296,23!^ 



1,090,000 



« See Jour. Nor. Ch. Br. Roy. Asiat. Soc, Vol. XX, p. 25 et seq. Newsliolnu> 

 (Eleni. Vital Statistics, \''A)) says that infant mortality in Eurojie is lowest 

 in Ireland, with KM.C) in every l.t'OO, jind hi.uclu'Sl in ilnssia in Euroiie. with 

 422.!> in evei'y 1,()(H». II nnist he al least lliis in China. In .lapan, wlx-rr 

 there exists the same desire as in China to have ixisterity, the average number 

 of children to a marriage is about .">..''» (Newsholme, op. cit., p. 70). I see no rea- 

 son to believe that the Chinese are more prolitic In the ITnited States, accord- 

 ing to the census of 1000, the annual death rate of the whites, where accurately 

 recorded, was about 17.8 per 1,000. 



