§ Mr. VINCENT KENNEDYasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will state what proportion of the population of England and Wales for the five years last past have attained the age of seventy years; and if he will give the figures for Ireland, and show how they compare with the figures for France and Germany?
§ The PRESIDENT of the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Burns)My right hon. Friend has asked me to reply to this question. The results of the recent Census being as yet unknown, the latest information respecting the number of persons living at different ages in England and Wales is that furnished by the Census of 1901. Assuming the proportional number of persons living over seventy-years of age to have remained unchanged since that date, 2.73 per cent. of the total population in England and Wales is aged seventy years or upwards; in Ireland the proportion is 4.20 per cent.; in the German Empire, 2.75 per cent.; and in France about 4.88 per cent.