Full text: Die Regierung im Kampfe gegen die Sozialverischerung

82 SEX, CONJUGAL CONDITION, AGE COMPOSITION OF VARIOUS STOCKS 
stock under 10 years of age, between 10 and 20, and 21 years and over. Much useful informa- 
sion is contained in this table regarding the various origins of the population of Canada, 
ihough only a partial analysis can be attempted here. 
In the first place it is noteworthy to find a wide variation in the percentages. From 
the Chinese with less than 6 p.c. of their number under 10 years of age to the Austrians 
and Ukrainians with between 35 and 37 pic. in that age group, is an exceedingly wide spread. 
Similar differences appear in the other age groups, Now, variation in age distribution as 
between different sections of the population is exceedingly significant. That has been 
pointed out in respect to broad nativity groups, but there is this difference when dealing 
with similar data for the respective stocks, namely, that when age distribution for a given 
stock is abnormal, the unusual distribution applies to a more or less homogeneous section 
of the community and not merely to the Canadian born or the foreign born portion of a 
stock. When the nativity groups for a given stock are combined, as they are under ordinary 
conditions in real life, the resulting population may constitute a fairly normal group in 
respect of age distribution. Table 40 shows very clearly, however, that this frequently does 
not occur. With many stocks in Canada, the combined influence of immigration, sex dis- 
tribution, birth rate and death rate has resulted in quite unusual age groupings. In a great 
many cases the population of a given origin forms a very definite section within the com- 
munity, and what has been said regarding social behaviour and abnormality in age distribu- 
tion has considerable point when it is shown that such differences actually do exist in quite 
distinct population groups. 
Table 41 arranges the stocks according to linguistic groups and shows the percentages of 
each stock and the average percentage for each group in the three specified age classes. In 
the first place, of all groups the British show the lowest proportion below 10 years of age 
and the highest in the group 21 and over. There are only two isolated cases where lower 
percentages are shown in the earlier ages, namely, the Bulgarians and the Chinese. In both 
of those stocks the numbers of males were far in excess of the females. In the case of those 
of Chinese origin it was found that there were fifteen times as many males as females in 
Canada and between four and five times as many of Bulgarian origin. This great dispropor- 
tion between the sexes is the chief explanation for the percentages under 10 years of age 
oeing lower among these two peoples than for the British'stock in Canada. 
With those minor exceptions, then, the British stocks show the smallest number of 
shildren under 10 years of age and larger proportions 21 years and over than any other 
Buropean group. The Scandinavian and Germanic stocks have a little higher proportion. in 
she earlier age group and a little smaller in the adult age group; the age distributions of the 
Scandinavian and Germanic stocks are very similar, Passing to the Latins and Greeks and 
the Slavs, quite a radical difference is at once apparent. The former group shows 32-2 p.c. and 
‘he latter 34-5 p.c. under 10 years, proportions notably larger than for the North Western 
Europeans. The percentages 21 years and over are correspondingly lower, with the excep- 
sion of that for the Greeks, whose age distribution is altogether unique. 
It is thus clear that there are marked differences in the age distribution of the various 
stocks and groups of stocks in Canada. The Latin and Greek and the Slavic peoples have 
on the whole much larger proportions under 10 years than have the English, Scandinavians, 
Germans or French, and consequently smaller percentages 21 years of age and over. No 
generalization can be made regarding the Asiatics, The Chinese with their small proportion 
of women have, as one would naturally expect, a very small number of children in their 
population; yet the Japanese, in spite of a very considerable surplus of males, have as large 
a. proportion under 10 years of age as the average Scandinavian or Germanic stock. A stock 
like the Syrian ranks along with the Slavic people in age distribution. The causes for these 
differences and their implications are exceedingly important, and will be dealt with in Chap- 
ber XII, where comparison will be made between the fertility of the various stocks. }
	        
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