Chapter 10 - Population and Social Matters

CHAPTER X

POPULATION AND SOCIAL MATTERS

THE official returns for the year 1908 gave Belgium a population of 7,386,444 persons. In 1831 the same extent of territory had 3,785,814 inhabitants. In seventy-seven years the population has increased by 3,600,630, or in other words, nearly doubled. In the same peirod there has been a large migration of Belgians into the neighboring countries, notably into France, and it does not seem an exaggeration to say that half a million Belgians reside out of their own country. Indeed, some authorities think that these returns are very incomplete, and that there are more than that number of Belgians in France alone.

As Belgium contains 29,445 square kilometers, the density of population in 1908 was 250.9 to the square kilometer, or 649.5 to the square mile. This density is only exceeded in Saxony, a kingdom half its size. The following table shows the population at the end of the years stated:

Population in Years Named

1831 1846 1856 1866 1876

3,785,814 4,337,196 4,529,560 4,827,833 5,336.185

1880 1890 1900 1908

5.520,009 6,069,321 6,693,548 7.386,444

Dividing the poulation among the Nine Provinces, the following are the returns for each of them in 1908:

Antwerp 559,218

Brabant 1,454,363

Hainaut 1,229,103

East Flanders 1,111,001

West Flanders 871,636

Liege 894,938

Limburg 269,442

Luxemburg 232,254

Namur 364,489

Total 7,386,444

The average annual increase in the population during the last forty years has been one per cent. The increases in the three decennial periods that follow were:

1866-76 10.53 per cent

1880-90 9.95 per cent

1890-1900 10.28 per cent

The increase for the eight years alone from 1900 to 1908 has been at the rate of 10.35, and by the end of 1910 it seemed likely to reach 12, which would place Belgium as a growing country on a level with Germany and Italy. The increase in population varies in the different provinces. It has been greatest in Antwerp, which increased by 17 per cent between 1890 and 1900, and in Brabant, where the increase was 14.23. Between 1846 and 1900 the population of Antwerp doubled, whereas for the whole kingdom the increase was only 54 per cent. Among the towns, Ostend, Antwerp, and Brussels in their order show the largest increases. In 1856 and again in 1866 there were more men than women in Belgium. In 1908 there were nearly 50,000 more women.

1856 1866 1908

Men 2,271,783 2,419,639 3,669,022

Women 2,257,777 2,408,194 3,717,422

With regard to the Belgians living in foreign countries, the following are the totals given for the seven most important countries. They are the latest returns available in all cases, but they do not relate to the same year:

Belgians by birth resident in

France 395,498

Holland 14,950

Germany 12,421

Great Britain and Ireland 4,588

Grand Duchy, the 3,891

United States, the 29,848

Argentina 5,634

The population of the cities and towns with over 100,000 inhabitants was as follows (1908) :

Brussels and its eight communes 637,807

Antwerp 391,600

Liege 175,870; with Seraing 218,508

Ghent 163,763

Bruges had 53,897 as against 48,673 in 1856, a

very small increase, but Courtrai had 34,977 as against

22,216. In the same period Ostend rose from 16,118

to 42,606 (out of the season). Among the historical

places the following may be named:

Town Population in 1856 Population in 1908

Louvain 30,765 42,001

Malines 31,371 59,218

Mons 26,061 . . 27,349

Tournai 30,824 37,640

Charleroi 10,702 27,415

Namur 24,716 32,047

Ypres 16,698 17,542

Verviers 27,115 48,583

The increase in the urban population has only been remarkable in a few places. At Mons and Ypres it has been infinitesimal.

Considering the growth of the Belgian population, it is curious to note that it has been due not so much to an extraordinarily high birth rate as to a low death rate. In 1908 there were 24.89 births per thousand of the population, but in Germany the ratio was 32; France, 20.2 ; England, 26.5 ; Scotland, 27.2 ; Italy, 33.6; Holland, 29.7; Austria, 34.5; Hungary, 36.3; and Russia, 48.1. The total births in the year named were 183,834, and the total deaths were 121,964. The death rate was as low as 16.51 per thousand. For purposes of comparison the rates in the other countries named in the same order were: Germany, 18; France, 19; England, 14.7; Scotland, 16.1; Italy, 22.2; Holland, 15; Austria, 22.4; Hungary, 26.3; and Russia, 30. In Belgium the male deaths are 52 per cent and the female 48 of the grand total.

The number of marriages rose from 26,484 in 1830 to 57,564 in 1908. The proportion in the former year was 6.50 per thousand inhabitants and in the latter 7.79. The highest proportion reached was 8.70. This occurred in the year 1901. The total for the year 1908 showed for the first time a slight diminution as compared with the previous year, when the number was 58,660.

The number of illegitimate children is decreasing, and of those subsequently legitimatized increasing. In 1880 there was one illegitimate birth to 12.89 legimate; in 1908 one illegitimate to 15.23 legitimate. There was an average annual increase of 29 per cent in the number legitimatized for the period 1891-1900 as compared with 1881-90. On the other hand, divorce and suicide showed a marked increase. In 1840 there was only one divorce to 1,175 marriages, and in 1865 one in 739, but in 1908 the ratio had risen to one in 65. It is only right to say that the increase has occurred chiefly in Brussels, Antwerp, and Liege. In the two Flanders there does not appear to be any increase at all. So also with suicides. In 1880 there were 441 suicides, an average of one per 12,146 of the population. In 1908 there were 970 suicides, or one per 7,616 of the inhabitants.

Since the year 1867 the total number of immigrants has for every ten years exceeded that of emigrants; since 1890 this has been true of every year without exception. Although there has been a notable diminution in the emigration figures, the majority still go to France - 54 per cent of a total emigration of 32,294 souls in 1908. The immigrants in that year numbered 38,155, of whom 16,984, or 44 per cent, came from France.

The decline in the comparative total of emigrants must be attributed to the high state of prosperity in Belgium as much as to the stay-at-home sentiments of the Belgian peoples. The Walloons rarely emigrate with the fixed intention of not returning. The bulk of Walloon emigrants are those who are attracted by the high wages offered them at Gladbach and other German manufacturing towns, and they always return sooner or later. The Flemings are more adventurous, and in both Flanders the emigrants still exceed the immigrants.

In the twenty-five years ending in 1908 the number of lunatics almost doubled as compared with an increase of 33 per cent in the population. The totals in 1833 were 4,454 men and 4,309 women (total, 8,763), and in 1908, 8,975 men and 7,959 women (total, 16,934).

Since 1890 great ameliorations have been effected in the status of the working man. In that year there were only 373 mutual societies for his relief in illness and accident, or for the benefit of his dependents after death. In 1908 the number recognized by the State had increased to 7,945. The number of members rose from 227,581 in 1900 to 605,670 in 1908, and their contributions from $580,052.20 in the previous year to $1,748,749.60 in the latter. The majority of these societies are affiliated to the State Savings Bank.

In 1892 new regulations were made for the provision of improved workmen's dwellings with State aid. Under them advances are made on the recommendation of the societies for the purchase or building of sanitary houses for the working classes. These become the occupiers' property on a sliding scale of repayment combined with life insurance. In 1908 $20,000,000 were advanced in one form or other by the Savings Bank for the amelioration of the homes of the working classes, or for the benefit of the pension and death funds of the societies.

Source: Boulger, Demetrius C. Belgium. Detroit: Published for the Bay View Reading Club, 1913. Print.

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