gh it will take some time to sink to the English level.
The birth-rate for Germany generally is still much higher than for
England generally, but urbanization in Germany seems to have a greater
influence than in England in lowering the birth-rate, and for many years
past the birth-rate of Berlin has been lower than that of London. The
birth-rate in Germany has long been steadily falling, and the increase
in the population of Germany is due to a concomitant steady fall in the
death-rate, a fall to which there are inevitable natural limits.[94]
Moreover, as Flux has shown,[95] urbanization is going on at a greater
speed in Germany than in England, and practically the entire natural
increase of the German population for a quarter of a century has drifted
into the towns. But the death-rate of the young in German towns is far
higher than in English towns, and the first five years of life in
Germany produce as much mortality as the first twenty-five years in
England.[96] So that a thousand children born in England add far more to
the population than a thousand children born in Germany. The average
number of children per family in German towns is less than in English
towns of the same size. These results, reached by Flux, suggest that in
a few years' time the rate of increase in the German population will be
lower than it is at present in England. In England, since 1876, the
decline has been so rapid as to be equal to 20 per cent within a
generation, and in some of the large towns to 40 per cent. Against this
there has, indeed, to be set the general tendency during recent years
for the death-rate to fall also. But this saving of life has until
lately been effected mainly at the higher ages; there has been but
little saving of the lives of infants, upon whom the death-rate falls
most heavily. Accompanying this falling off in the number of children
produced there has often been, as we might expect, a fall in the
marriage-rate; but this has been less regular, and of late the
marriage-rate has sometimes been high when the birth-rate was low.[97]
There has, however, been a steady postponement of the average age at
which marriage takes place. On the whole, the main fact that emerges is,
that nowadays in England we marry less and have fewer children.

This is now a familiar fact, and perhaps it should not excite very great
surprise. England is an old and fairly stable country, and it may be
said that it would be unreasonable to expect