Birth-Rate
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Birth-Rate. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the proportion of births in a given number of inhabitants. For some years it has been evident to students of vital statistics that the birth-rate was steadily decreasing in nearly all European countries. Table No. 1 gives the births and birthrates in the birth registration area of the United States from 1915 to 1918, inclusive. The registration area includes only those States in which such records are kept. Table No. 2 gives the birthrate in the United Kingdom for the years 1913, 1917, and 1918. These years are selected in order to show the effect of the World War on the birth-rate in Great Britain. Birth-rates for other countries since the end of the World War are not available, but it may be stated in general that the effect of the war was to reduce greatly the rate in all countries which participated in it. Births and rates per 1,000 population in the birth registration area of the United States for the years 1915 to 1918. Rate per Estimated Births population 1,000 Year as of July 1 31,150,803 776,304 24.9 1915. 33,013,280 818,983 24.8 1916. 55,033,195 1,353,792 24.6 1917. 55,813,339 1,363,649 24.4 1918. Birth-rates per 1,000 population. 1918 Country 1913 1917 18.1 18.2 United Kingdom.... 24.1 17.7 17.8 24.1 England and Wales. 20.1 20.2 25.5 Scotland. 19.9 19.7 22.8 Ireland.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in political economy , a term used to denote the number of births annually per thousand of population. The United States birth rate for 1880 was 31.5; for 1890, 26.68; for 1900, 27.20. The rate in European countries is falling in like manner. According to the latest data, varying in date from 1900 to 1907, the annual birth rate per thousand inhabitants for certain countries was: Australia 25.5 Austria 35.0 Belgium 27.5 Denmark 29.2 England and Wales 28.0 France 20.9 Germany 34.1 Hungary 36.6 India 48.0 Ireland 23.6 Italy 31.5 Norway 27.9 Prussia 36.1 Scotland 28.6 Spain 35.6 Sweden 25.7 United Kingdom 28.2 United States 27.2
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts describe a decline that had only begun. Aiton's 1910 table gives the United States 27.2 births per thousand and singles out France at 20.9 as remarkably low; the American rate is now around 11, and Italy sits near 6, while South Korea's total fertility rate fell to about 0.72 in 2023 — roughly a third of the 2.1 needed to replace a population. Collier's noted in 1921 that its figures covered only the "birth registration area" of states that kept records; complete national coverage was not achieved until 1933. The decline both entries watched with interest is now understood as the demographic transition, and the anxiety has reversed: most countries are below replacement, and the modern worry is depopulation and ageing rather than excessive increase.
Written for this edition, 2026.