Economic Life

The population was still growing significantly during the Edwardian period:

	England and Wales	United Kingdom
1901	32,500,000	41,500,000
1911	36,100,000	45,200,000

But though numbers were continuing to increase, the total population was beginning to contain proportionately less young people and proportionately more middle-aged. The 1911 census Report illustrated this movement, which was marked even within the short span between the two censuses of 1901 and 1911: Ratio of the proportional numbers enumerated at each age (1911 = 100)

	1881	1901	1911
Under 5	127	107	100
5-10	118	105	100
10-15	111	106	100
15-20	106	108	100
20-25	102	109	100
25-30	92	102	100

In the higher age groups the ratios moved the other way:

30-35	84	94	100
35-40	82	91	100
40-45	87	92	100
45-50	83	91	100
50-55	89	92	100
55-60	88	91	100

In 1881 almost 16,400,000 out of a population of nearly 26 million had been aged under 30; by 1911 the corresponding totals were 20,600,000 out of 36,100,000. At first the consequences of the late-Victorian decline in the birth rate had even been advantageous, since the economy was required to support proportionately fewer unproductive children. But by 1911 this temporary advantage had passed, and the census Report warned of the economic consequences of a lessening proportion 'of workers at the most economically efficient ages', and also of its worrying implications for the future supply of army and navy recruits. If the birth rate continued to fall alongside a falling death rate, The Times (1 May 1901) warned that the end would be a change in the whole atmosphere of society: 'an old man's world would not be a beautiful one. It would not be one with variety, sparkle, sunshine, mirth, and the charm of the unexpected ... we might begin to regret the advances of sanitary science'.