Here we visualize important data about the live birth rate in European countries before 1914.
- First, by looking at the visualization (view 1), you should be able to reach some important conclusions about how the annual live birthrate might have influenced policy makers, especially the military, in France and Germany in about 1910.
- Second, I've included here two, slightly-different visualizations of the same data. Note how just some very simple changes in the visual display formatting will serve to change how a user might interpret a visualization.
- You can click on any specific row of one of the visualizations to see the actual numerical information.
- Susan Grayzel, “Liberating Women? Examining Gender, Morality and Sexuality in First World War Britain and France” in Gail Braybon, ed., Evidence, History and the Great War (2003), page 120: illegitimate births rose in England and Wales from 37,000 in 1914 to 57,000 in 1917 to 42,000 in 1918. The actual number of births declined markedly during the war, from 879,000 in 1914 to 688,000 in 1917 to 663,000 in 1918 (citing B. R. Mitchell, Abstract of British Historical Statistics (1962), pages 30-33)
- France sharp decline in the birth rate from 59.3% in 1914 to 31.3% in 1918 (citing Michel Huber, pages 250-51)
Source: Michel Huber, La population de la France pendant la guerre (1931), page 46 citing Institut international de statistique, Annuaire international de statistique, volume 2 (1917)