|
United States (excluding Alaska | | |
and oversea possessions) |3,000,000| 105,683,108 | 35
| | (1920) |
------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Ireland taken at 1911 census figures.

Japan's 394 per square mile is lowered by the population of Hokkaido
(2,359,097), which is only 66 per square mile. The population of the
three chief Japanese islands is: Honshu, the mainland (41,806,930),
471; Shikoku (3,066,890), 423; and Kyushu (8,729,088), 511. (These
figures are for 1920.) "As regards density per square kilometre,"
writes an official of the Imperial Bureau of Statistics in the _Japan
Year-book_, with the figures antecedent to the 1920 census before him,
"it is calculated at 140 for Japan and this compares as follows with
Belgium (1910) 252, England and Wales (1911) 239, Holland (1909) 171,
Italy (1911) 121, Germany (1910) 120 and France 44. When comparison is
made on the basis of habitable area Japan may be considered to surpass
all as to density, for while in Japan it constitutes only 19 per cent,
of the total area, the ratio is as high as 74 for Belgium, 73 for
England and Wales, 67 for Holland, 76 for Italy, 65 for Germany and 70
for France." The Professor of Agricultural Science at Tokyo University
says: "The area under cultivation, even in the densely populated
parts, is comparatively smaller than in any other country."

In a statement issued in 1921 the Department of Agriculture reckoned
the population at 145 per square kilometre and recorded the mean rate
of increase "in recent years" as 12.06 per 1,000. It stated that the
density of the rural population was 44 per square kilometre or 9.42
per hectare of arable, in other words that the density "is higher
than that of France, Belgium, Switzerland and some other countries
where the agriculture is marked by fairly intensive methods." Mr.
Nikaido, of the Bureau of Statistics, writes in the _Japan Year-book_
that the annual increase of Japan's population was 14.78 per 1,000 for
1909-13 and 12.06 for 1914-18, "a rate greater than in any civilised
country, with the exception of Germany and Rumania in the pre-War
years."

The birth rate is high, but so is the mortality. The death rate of
minors is thrice that of Germany and Great Britain. Here the
increasing industrialisation of the country is no doubt playing its
part. The ratio of still bir