ABSTRACT
By the mid-1980s the population was again growing slightly faster, as the large number of women born in the early 1960s reached their period of maximum fertility. As in the late nineteenth century, the rate of population growth declined because fertility fell faster than mortality. The economic effect of the growth of population in this century has been less significant than in earlier periods, because the rate of increase has been slower while the underlying rate of economic growth has been faster, particularly from the 1940s. Economic conditions in much of the primary-producing Empire, which was the main recipient for emigration by this time, were even worse than in Britain. It is likely, however, that in a modern economy the quality of the labour supplied is more important than the quantity, and so discussion of quantity changes will be fairly brief, with the exception of the rise in the female participation rate, which has been of great importance to women.
