Series 3 > Scottish population statistics, including Webster's Analysis of population, 1755

xxxii WEBSTER’S CENSUS
found at the older ages. The smaller proportion of the
population living in the early age groups in the 1931
pyramid is caused mainly by the falling birth-rate since
the beginning of the century.
The age distribution of these Northern counties is such
that unless some means can be found of attracting people
from outside the area, the population, particularly in the
more northerly counties, must inevitably decline very
greatly. This position is tragically true in the case of some
highland parishes where the old people now outnumber
the young and where in the ordinary course of nature the
population will dwindle until the parishes become prac¬
tically uninhabited.
As an example of these conditions, population diagrams
are given for the parish of Gairloch in Wester Ross for the
years 1861 when the population was at its maximum of
5479 and for 1931 when the population had fallen to 2376.
(The preliminary report on the 1951 census shows a further
reduction to 1991.)
The 1861 pyramid shows evidence of a high birth-rate
and a fairly well-balanced population with an indication
of mass emigration in some age groups. The 1931 figure—
it can hardly be called a pyramid—shows the effect of a
falling birth-rate and a population so unbalanced in age¬
grouping that there is not much variation in the numbers
living at each quinquennial age group from 0-5 to 75-80.
This maldistribution indicates that the continuance of the
normal social and economic administration of the area
must necessarily become a matter of the greatest difficulty.
In an historical treatise the main theme must relate to
the past, but the facts which have been brought out in
this volume are pointers to the future.
He would be a bold man who would dare to predict what