The following figures for the rate of natural
increase are then obtained:
_Group_
I 16.56
II 13.89
III 11.43
IV 13.81
V 10.29
VI 5.79
"The figures show in a manner which hardly admits of any doubt that in
London at any rate the inhabitants of the poorest quarters--over a
million in number--are reproducing themselves at a much greater rate
than the more well-to-do."
A research on similar lines by S. R. Steinmetz[69] in Holland shows that
the average number of children in the lowest class families is 5.44.
People in industry or small trade, skilled mechanics and professors of
theology have five children to the family; in other classes the number
is as follows:
Artists 4.30
Well-to-do Commercial Classes 4.27
High Officials 4.00
University Professors (excluding theological) 3.50
23 Scholars and Artists of the first rank 2.60
It is not hard to see that the next generation in Holland is likely to
have proportionately fewer gifted individuals than has the present one.
Fortunately, it is very probable that the differential birth-rate is not
of such ominous import in rural districts as it is in cities, although
some of the tribes of degenerates which live in the country show
birth-rates of four to six children per wife.
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