1. A Survey of Recent Belgian Population Policy.
- Author
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Watson, Cicely
- Subjects
POPULATION ,EMIGRATION & immigration ,GOVERNMENT policy ,SOCIAL indicators ,PUBLIC health ,DEMOGRAPHY - Abstract
This article presents information about a survey of recent Belgian population policy. Belgium is one of the most thickly populated areas in the world, with an average density of rather more than 279 inhabitants per square kilometer. Belgium, like other industrial nations of the western world, has for fifty years been experiencing a rapidly declining birth rate with a consequent ageing of her population. The total population of a country is affected by three major factors-births, deaths and migrations. The government's policy is concerned with all three but, since purely demographic considerations cannot be isolated from the general national approach to social welfare and public health and the political and economic tensions and strains peculiar to the nation, its intentions, successes and failures must be viewed in their proper setting. Any population programme in Belgium, as indeed any national programme in whatever sphere of activity, is faced with deep racial-linguistic conflicts, and particular attention must be given to regional needs and desires.
- Published
- 1954
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