of the soil. Thus the islands have 132, but Jutland only 50 inhabitants per square kilometre.

Of the population of the country in 1921 about 1,807,000 persons, or about 55 per cent., lived in towns; this figure, however, not only includes the population of Copenhagen and its neighbours, Frederiksberg and Gentofte, and the municipalities which, in an administrative sense, have municipal government (the number of which is 85), but also the population of suburban districts, and other urban localities in the countryside. The distribution of town and country population is thus:

The Capital (in which is reckoned the three towns built close together: Copenhagen, Frederiksberg and Gentofte) is the only really big town in Denmark, and contains a good 21 per cent. of the population of the whole country a state of affairs quite peculiar to Denmark. The next-largest town, Aarhus, only attains to 75,000 inhabitants. The distribution of the provincial towns according to size in 1925 will appear from the figures given below:

These figures show that a great number of the provincial towns are very small. The 45 biggest with more than 5,000 inhabitants each are, with the population in 1925, included in the table given below.

Half a century ago the urban population comprised a quarter of the inhabitants of the whole country, but now, as a consequence of the development of industries and commerce

and, in connec- it amounts

tion therewith, the increasing resort to specialization to more than half. Farmers, for instance, now buy many commodities which they formerly produced themselves. Obviously, the present extensive use of agricultural machinery has made it possible for agriculture to be carried on with fewer workers.

VITAL STATISTICS

From year to year the population of Denmark increases to no small extent. At the present time this increase amounts to about one per cent. (0.95 per cent. p. a.), that is to say just over 30,000 annually, as the number of births fluctuates around 75,000, the number of deaths around 38,000, and there is a net emigration of about 6000 annually. The average birth-rate for the years 1921-24 was 22.7 per thousand, and the death-rate 11.4 per thousand, as compared with 28.8 and 14.6 respectively in the first ten years of the twentieth century.

The decline in the birth-rate which has taken place in Denmark, as in most other countries, is as a rule by no means accompanied by a corresponding decline in the number of marriages, which for a long time has remained at about 71⁄2 per thousand annually, corresponding at the present time to twentysix or twentyseven thousand marriages a year. The decline in marriage offspring has, however, been accompanied by a falling off in the number of births outside of wedlock, ten to eleven per cent. of the children born every year being illegitimate.

Together with the decline in the birth-rate there has, as already mentioned, been a still heavier decline in mortality. The increase in the mean duration of life during the past twentyfive years has been about five years, and it is now, for males 55.8 years, and for females 58.1 years. In the causes of death the decline is more obvious among the epidemic diseases and consumption, whereas cancer is recognized as a cause of death in a steadily increasing number of cases. Denmark has been able to maintain her position as a country with a very low death-rate.

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION ACCORDING TO
OCCUPATION

As already stated, rather less than half of the population live in the country outside the urban areas. Among the rural population there are, of course, traders and artisans besides the farmers, even if the increase in the town population is to some extent due to the circumstance that a large number of those whose occupation is not of an agricultural nature, but who are connected with and earn their living by work for the rural population, have congregated in the urban areas. The following summary is given for the purpose of better illustrating the distribution of the whole population according to the principal occupation groups:

It will be seen that the number of persons who, as family providers or dependents, are attached to the agricultural trade, is something more than one million, while somewhat less than one million are connected with handicraft and industry. Apart from the latter and from all dependents etc. there remains a group those >>economically active<<< about 1,331,000 persons:

consisting of

The figure includes 431,000 principals, 166,000 functionaries and 734,000 workers. Thus a little more than half of the total number of persons engaged in the above occupations must be looked upon as workers proper, while only about one-third can be considered as independent.

THE CONSTITUTION

From the middle of the 17th to the middle of the 19th Century Denmark was governed under a system of absolute monarchy, and the autocratic principle was, in the Danish Constitution Act of that time the so-called »King's Law«, carried to a more logical conclusion than in most of the other countries where a similar form of government existed. By the Constitution Act of June 5th, 1849, however, the King, Frederik VII, gave his people a free constitution without having been urged to do so by anything in the nature of a revolution, and this constitution was built upon far-reaching democratic principles. This form of government was based on the two chamber system; in the Upper House, the >>Landsting«, the Crown was represented by a certain number of members appointed by the King, whereas the greater number of the members of the House were elected indirectly by the people in large constituencies; all the members of the Lower House, the >>Folketing«, were elected directly by the people in single-member constituencies. At none of these elections was the franchise restricted by any tax or income qualification.

During the general state of depression which prevailed among the Danish population after the disastrous war of 1864, this very liberal constitution was, however, considerably amended by a revision of July 28th, 1866, the principal new provision of which was that the biggest taxpayers and most wealthy subjects were given a special influence on the composition of the Landsting, whereas the composition of the Folketing, in the main, remained unchanged.

When about the year 1870 the democratically-minded element of the population which, at that time, had its stronghold among the agricultural class, had gained the majority in the Folketing, a very keen constitutional conflict arose owing to the fact that a Conservative Cabinet, with the support of the Landsting, continued in office in opposition to the majority in the Folketing.