216 RELATION OF ORIGIN TO FERTILITY AND INFANT MORTALITY 
The sbove equation is a generalized statement based on the experience of eighteen 
origin groups in Canada and contains information of general scientific interest as well as 
of special consequence to the Dominion. 
First, stocks showing a preference for rural life normally have higher birth rates 
than the more urban. Rural residence per se is probably more favourable to fertility. The 
existence of such a causal connection could be demonstrated by comparing the birth rates 
of the rural and urban sections of each stock. It is of minor importance, however, from 
the point of view of this study, whether high fertility is the result of rural environment 
or of biological and social characteristics associated with rural preferences. The essential 
fact is that rural peoples have high fertility. 
Second, illiteracy and high fertility go together. The larger the percentages of an origin 
group unable to read or write any language, the higher is the birth rate. In the 
report on illiteracy to which Teference was made in Chapter IX, it is shown that high 
illiteracy and low educational status among the literate of the same origin go hand in hand. 
The percentage of illiterates, then, reflects in a very adequate manner the educational 
standard of the group. In view of this fact, the high positive correlation between fertility 
and illiteracy 1s exceedingly significant. 
Third, the positive relation appearing between birth rate and the percentage North 
American born suggests that the birth rate of immigrant peoples normally goes up rather 
than down in the second and in some cases possibly in the third generation of Canadian 
residence. The word “normally” is intended to imply that the statement is applicable to 
most immigrant stocks. The generalization is’ applied . explicitly to immigrant stocks, 
because sixteen out of the eighteen groups examined were of foreign origin. The pre- 
sumed tendency towards higher birth rates is associated with the second generation because 
she percentage of most non-British and non-French stocks resident in Western Canada for 
three or more generations is very small. The presumption in favour of this interpretation 
's strengthened by the fact that when the analysis is pursued further by the method of 
partial and multiple correlation it becomes clear that the use of the proportion North 
American born (21 and over) as an index of length of residence is not vitiated by a 
transient abnormality in sex distribution. 
An impetus to the birth rate following immigration to a new country is not without 
historical precedent. It is reasonable to suppose that ‘Canada is more favourable to large 
families than are the countries of Europe from which many of our immigrants come. Thd 
pressure of population on natural resources is certainly not so great; indeed, in rural dis- 
tricts the child is an asset. This is especially so in a growing country where agricultural 
labour is both scarce and expensive. A stimulus to the birth rate would also occur wherever 
‘he rise in the standard of living failed to keep pace with increased earnings. Many other 
contributory causes could be suggested, but whatever the explanation or explanations may 
be, the correlation at least draws attention to the cumulative effect on our population 
structure of the introduction of large bodies of immigrant agriculturists. 
While the association of higher birth rates with larger proportions North American 
corn (after allowances are made for illiteracy and rural and urban residence), seems to 
warrant the aforesaid influences, one should not overlook the possibility of the percentage 
of adults of North American birth reflecting more than length of residence. The explana- 
tions in the last two paragraphs, therefore, should be regarded as tentative until such time 
as more detailed classification of both vital statistics and census data makes direct verifica- 
ion possible. 
When the standard deviations of X, X3 and X4 are related to the regression equation, 
another important fact is revealed. Illiteracy is more than twice as important in the 
squation in accounting for a high fertility as either rural domicile or length of residence 
in Canada. Illiteracy and low educational standards probably cause high fertility. That 
she causal connection works in that direction is not proven by our data. It has been 
demonstrated, however, that origin groups that tolerate low educational standards have high 
birth rates and that the two are clearly associated characteristics peculiar to certain stocks 
in Canada.l 
T1See also Illiteracy and School Attendance in Canada, page 129,