CO129-596-4 Hong Kong University- Apprenticeship scheme 4-2-1947 - 3-9-1947 — Page 63

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group as 16 to 65, according to the 1931 census this group made up 68.8% of the population, 32.7 men and 36.1 women.

"It was not very profitable to make forecasts very far

ahead, for such forecasts were bound to include a large element of

opinion, Personally, he and his Department were inclined to

regard certain of the more alarming forecasts which had recently

been prepared as unduly pessimistic. The difficulty was to fore-

cast the effect on age groups and birth rates of people still

unborn. As he had said, it seemed possible that we might reach a

stable population, and this might be regarded in certain quarters

as optimistic. The rise in the proportion of elderly people

which was shown in the forecast which had been furnished to the

Board at an earlier stage (0.S.B.46) was largely due to the fact

- that the population now in the middle years of life were

survivors of births numbering 900,000 a year in England and Wales,

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