THE CENSUS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—(1) The Registrar-General's statement that a birth-rate of 16.3 per thousand is insufficient to maintain a stationary population implies that we are not to expect our average duration of life, which has already been raised to about fifty- seven years, to rise to 61.8 years ! (2) You correctly say that this very low birth-rate will mean " more of the retired and fewer children for the working part of the population to support," and you might have added that the financial burden from the aged will be greatly outweighed by the financial saving from having fewer children. A grandparent is generally much less costly than a child. (3) You suggest that the slow increase of the French people has been due to high infantile mortality. Really, the difference between their infantile mortality of 94 per thousand births and ours of 74 is negligible as regards population increase. The reason why the French have increased so slowly is that they could only increase their food supply (home-grown and imported) very slowly.—I am,
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