Demographic Yearbook 1949-50, Second Issue

With the publication of the first issue of the Demographic Yearbook, a precedent was established in the presentation of comprehensive and sound demographic data for almost every country in the world. The most reliable and recent figures on population, mortality, natality, and migration were collected for the years up to and including 1947, making possible up-to-date descriptions of each country and comparisons of characteristics in different countries. This second issue of the Yearbook continues the main descriptions and further enlarges the field covered in the first issue. It gives a number of basic tables of population composition, economic characteristics, mortality rates, and migration across national boundaries for the years up to 1948 and in many cases up to 1949. Various sources of data are used, but for a number of the tables special questionnaires were answered by government and administrative departments. Undoubtedly the population data thus presented constitute the most comprehensive and up-to-date body of knowledge at present available. Moreover, this issue includes in the text a chapter which analyses regional population trends and attempts some interpretation of them. In addition to the basic tables of the first issue, several new tables are included, some of which will be repeated annually, and others every five years. The subject of special emphasis in this issue, that of marriage and fertility, is one of particular interest to the western countries with their ageing populations. The special tables here presented cover a wider field than the customary summaries of marriage and fertility rates: there are tables of fertility rates by age of father, of births by age of mother and order of birth, and of information concerning surviving children, proportions of children under 5 years of age, and the like. In such a large array of tables from countries differing so widely in their methods of collecting and recording data, it is hardly surprising that discrepancies become apparentdue in some cases to the divergence of ideas and definitions in different countries, and in others to inaccuracies of all kinds. These irregularities are discussed in the text at the appropriate points, and certain steps have been taken to minimize them; moreover, several devices are introduced to safeguard against misinterpretation of the data. One of these devices in connection with population data, takes the form of a code describing the type of estimate from which the data were obtained and indicating the reliability of the estimate. Nevertheless, the non-comparability of figures for many countries detracts to some extent from the value of certain comparisons. In every table curious differences between countries emerge, and it is important to know whether these represent real differences or whether the curious points are only the results of inaccuracies in figures or different definitions of categories. For instance, Table 6, which gives the percentages of unmarried men and women in each age-sex group, reveals a very wide range of differences. France apparently has very small proportions of single men and women at the higher ages, whilst Ireland stands out as having large proportions of unmarried men and women at all ages and particularly at the higher ages and above 65 years. Other points of interest are disclosed in other tables: from Tables 5, 7, and 8, which refer to marriage status and to women by age and number of