Census of the British empire, 1901. : Report with summary and detailed tables for the several colonies, &c., area, houses, and population; also population classified by ages, condition as to marriage, occupations, birthplaces, religions, degrees of education, and infirmities.

  • Great Britain. Census Office.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Census of the British empire, 1901. : Report with summary and detailed tables for the several colonies, &c., area, houses, and population; also population classified by ages, condition as to marriage, occupations, birthplaces, religions, degrees of education, and infirmities. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Observa- tions on Civil Condition. In India. In Natal. In Mauri- tius and in Trinidad. In the West Indies. Civil condition affected by sex and age consti- tution, NXVIl Census or THE British Emprre, 1901. From this Table it appears that the highest proportions of married persons are found in the Indian Empire, Natal, Cyprus, and Canada, and the lowest proportions in Mauritius, Trinidad, St. Lucia, and Grenada. In discussing the civil condition of the population in India, it is stated in the Report on the Indian Census that “ the most noticeable fact brought out by the statistics is the universality of marriage,” and this is attributed mainly to religious influences. “In the Indian Empire, as a whole, amongst people of all religions taken together, to every 1,000 husbands there are only 1,011 wives, so that, even if no husbands have more than two wives, only 11 per 1,000 indulge in a second helpmate. The great difference between East and West in the civil conditions of the populations is shown by the following Tabular Statement :— Proportion per 1000 of each Sex. MALES. aE as et SEROMA ES ee Unmarried. Married. Widowed. Under | Over Under Over Under Over 15 years. | 15 years. | 15 years. | 15 years. | 15 years. | 15 years. “wh | ‘ Indiau Kmpire ... vat Ped 367 125 23 43.1 1 58 United Kingdom oh fa 334 289 _ 342 — 35 ; ; FEMALES. pba “yey LALO) Agee | Te PRES MEE EE Sener Ee: eee Indian Empire ... aoe F 316 28 62 Ald a Pie United Kingdom es ee 313 283 _ 328 — 76 The Indian Census Report also states “that of all the peculiar usages which are associated with marriage in India none has impressed itself so distinctly on the Census statistics as the custom which prohibits the second marriage of a widow, and the convention enjoining the marriage of a daughter before she attains physical maturity.” With regard to Natal, which shows the second highest proportion of the married, it appears that the excess is mainly due to the presence of a considerable number of Indians ; for, while among the Europeans or Whites in the Colony only 33°0 per cent. were returned as married, the rate for Indians and Asiatics, who slightly outnumbered the Whites, amounted to 44°2 per cent. It is curious that, while on the one hand the immigration of Indians into Natal has modified the statistics of civil condition in that Colony in the manner shown above, the same cause has a directly opposite effect in Mauritius and Trinidad. Inthe former island the Indian population numbered 259,086 out of a total of 370,526, and in the latter 86,383 out of 255,148. The Census Report for Mauritius explains that those Indians who on arrival simply make a declaration that they are married obtam a marriage certificate, the marriage consequently being recognised as legal, but that any Indians who contract marriage in Mauritius according to their own rites are not recognised as being legally married, and therefore appear in the Census Returns as unmarried. The instructions issued in Trinidad were that “‘ Immigrants married according to the Christian rite, or who hold registration certificates of their native marriages, . . . are to be entered on the schedules as ‘ married,’ all others ‘unmarried.’?” The returns, however, are held to be very unsatisfactory. The explanation of the cause of the unpopularity of the married state in Grenada and St. Lucia is no doubt that in these Islands a large proportion of the population live in a state that is closely akin to wedlock, for, save as regards the religious ceremony, it fulfils all the conditions of the wedded state. It is possible that the same might be said of some other of the West Indian Islands, for in Jamaica, where the want of a Census in 1901 prevents the quotation of recent statistics, the proportion of married, both in 1881 and 1891, was only 18:5 per cent. of the population. The question of civil condition is usually dealt with in combination with that of sex and age constitution of the population, for it is obvious that these factors are to a great extent mutually dependent. Thus a population containing a proportionally large number of children, or one in which either the male or the female sex is much in excess,