

CHAPTER Xr. 



GENEEAL STATISTICS. 

 Population. 



HATEVER may be the position held by the Germans amongst 

 the civilised nations of the world, there can be no doubt as to 

 their strength as determined by numbers. Russia is the only 

 European state which has a larger population, but its inhabitants 

 neither live in so compact a body, nor are they united by so 

 strong a national tie as are those of Germany. In 1830 the states now forming 

 the German Empire had 28,800,000 inhabitants, and they have increased ever 

 since at the rate of 1,000 daily.* The population is less dense than in England, 

 Belgium, Italy, and Holland, but more so than in any other country in Europe. 

 The excess of females is proportionately large, a feature partly due to emigration 

 and wars.t 



The increase of the population results almost exclusively from an excess of 

 births over deaths, Î and it more especially affects the large towns. Up to the 

 middle of the century hardly more than a fourth of the inhabitants lived in towns ; 

 but the proportion has been rapidly increasing ever since, and in 1875 39 per cent, 

 of the population resided in towns of over 2,000 inhabitants. The larger the 

 towns, the more rapid their growth, whilst in many of the rural districts the popu- 

 lation is actually decreasing. § 



Until recently some of the rural districts were threatened with depopulation, 

 for their inhabitants emigrated in thousands. In the course of sixty years, from 

 1815 — 76, 4,114,000 Germans emigrated, for the most part to the United States. 



* Population of Germany in 1871 (December 1), 41,060,846 ; in 1875, 4-2,727,360 ; in 1879 (estimated) 

 44,600,000. According to language there were, in 1876, 39,080,000 Germans (and Jews), 2,975,000 Slavs, 

 120,000 Lithuanians, 150,000 Danes, and 350,000 French. 



t In 1871 (before the war) there were 1,018 females to every 1,000 males ; in 1875, 1,036. 



i Marriages (annual average, 1872— 76'i, 398,777; births, 1,758,021; deaths, 1,229,553: excess of 

 births over deaths, 528,468. 



§ Between 1871 and 1875 12 towns having over 100,000 inhabitants increased at the rate of 14-83 

 per cent. ; 88 towns of between 20,000 and 100,000 inhabitants increased 12-41 per cent. ; 593 towns of 

 between 5,000 and 20,000 inhabitants increased 10-74 per cent. ; whilst the general increase of population 

 only amounted to 4-05 per cent. 



