SECTION E.— GEOGRAPHY. 



THE CHANGING DISTRIBUTION OF 

 POPULATION 



ADDRESS BY 



PROF. C. B. FAWCETT, D.Sc, 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



The changes which form the subject-matter of this address are obviously 

 of such importance, and so directly geographical, that the choice of the 

 topic for this Section needs no apology except on the score of its magni- 

 tude. Unfortunately, reliable statistical evidence of such changes is still 

 inadequate. The taking of systematic and regular censuses began, on 

 both sides of the North Atlantic, only near the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century ; and the habit spread slowly to other lands. For the past 

 sixty years we have censuses, of varying value, for about half the popula- 

 tion of the earth, and during the present century for nearly three- fourths. 

 But for perhaps a quarter of the world's population we must still rely on 

 estimates of uncertain and variable value. In very few countries can 

 we find a firm basis for a study of changes over the last three generations. 

 Hence there are practically no reliable studies of long-period population 

 changes ^ ; and here I shall confine myself mainly to the facts of the 

 present century. 



At the beginning of this century Levasseur made a notable study of 

 the distribution of the world's population, in which he calculated the 

 proportions living in the various zones. This part of it I have reworked 

 for the present day, and the results are shown in the following table (I), 

 p, ii6. 



The chief conclusions which may be drawn, tentatively, from these 

 figures are (i) that the proportion of mankind living in the intertropical 

 lands has diminished, though this change may be only apparent, due to 

 reduction in some of the estimates which Levasseur used ; (2) that there 

 has been a considerable increase in the small proportion which inhabits 

 the south temperate lands, and (3) that the really populous zone of the 

 northern lands has maintained, or even slightly increased, its dominance. 

 The last column indicates that the density of population in the north 

 temperate lands is three times as great as that in intertropical lands, and 

 more than four times that in the ' new ' countries of the southern hemi- 

 sphere ; though the latter have more than doubled their populations during 

 the present century, with the greatest increase in Argentina. 



But the tropics are very arbitrary dividing lines for any such study ; and 

 my only reason for using them is the fact that Levasseur did so thirty 



1 For references see end of Address. 



