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48 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
ordinary figures without constantly thinking of what
they mean. .
I come finally to less debatable ground in one way,
but where there is practical mischief from the misuse
of figures. Nothing is more common than to compare
populations whiCh may be assumed to be racially very
nearly alike, or approximating in certain qualities, but
which really differ greatly from each other in regard to
the distribution of the population according to age.
France and Germany, for instance, are cont~hually
spoken of as if the difference of their numbers made a
corresponding difference in their force. In fact the
population of Germany contains a much larger per-
centage of children than that of France does. and the
numbers of adults in the two countries do not differ so
much in proportion as their total numbers do.
To show what differences there may be in the relative
proportions according to ages in different communities,
I have brought together certain figures extracted from
the last census. in each case showing the total numbers,
the total male population, the males above the age of
20, and the males between 20 and 40. in France, Ger-
many, and the United Kingdom, respectively. (See
Table A annexed.) From this it will be seen that
France, with a population of close on 38 millions, has
11,828,000 males above 20; and Germany, with a
population of just under 47 million inhabitants, or up-
wards of 20 per cent. more than that of France, has
12,435,000 males above the age of 20, or only 5 per
cent. more of this class of the population than France
has. The proportion of males above 20 is in the one
case 31 per cent., and in the other 26! per cent. only.
In the United Kingdom, where the total numbers, by
the last census available for me in preparing this paper.
are less than in either France or Germany, the propor-
tion of males above 20 to the total population is 251
per cent. only. On the other hand. the number of males
between 20 and 40 is proportioned more equally in each
case to the total numbers of the population, being about