POPULATION enumerated in the COUNTIES of ENGLAND and WALES in 1871 and 1881. THE CENSUS OF 1881. At no period earlier than the commencement of the present century was it possible to form any trustworthy estimate as to the number of persons inhabiting this country. For all computations founded on domesday books, on subsidy rolls, on payments of poll or hearth tax, and the like, however ingenious they might be, involved of necessity so large an intermixture of guesswork as to deprive their results of any very substantial value. No proposal to ascertain the number of the population by systematic enumeration appears to have been made until the middle of the last century. On March 30, 1753, Mr. Thomas Potter, who sat as member for St. Germans in the House of Commons, brought in a Bill "for taking and registering an annual account of the total number of the people, and of the total number of marriages, births, and deaths; and also of the total number of the poor receiving alms from every parish and extra-parochial place in Great Britain." This Bill apparently had the support of the Ministry of the day; for among those whose names appear on the back are Mr. George Greville, a Lord of the Treasury; Lord Barrington, a Lord of the Admiralty; and Mr. Charles Yorke, the Lord Advocate for Scotland. The difficulty of taking an account of the population within the limits of a single day, a limitation which is a distinctive feature in the method of enumeration adopted in this country, becomes greater and greater at each recurring decennial period, owing to the rapid growth of the people and the increasing complexity of their local subdivisions. It is probably owing to the gradual dying out of the prejudices which hung about earlier Censuses, and to the increased experience of the local officials in the process of enumeration, that each successive Census has been more accurately taken than that which preceded it. The total number of persons returned as living in England and Wales at midnight on April 4, 1881, was 25,968,286. This was an increase of 3,256,020, or of 14:34 per cent, upon the numbers living at the previous Census of April 3, 1871, and was almost exactly equivalent to the addition of another London with all its inhabitants to the population. The rate of increase was higher than in any decennium since 1831-41, when it was 14:52. In the two succeeding decades (1841-51 and 1851-61) the rate fell, first to 12:65 and then to 11.93; but in 1861-71 the rate again rose to 13:19, to be, as already noted, still further advanced to 14:34 in the ten years just completed. Of the 25,968,286 persons enumerated 12,624,754 were males, and 13,343,532 were females. This gives an excess of females over males of 718,778; an excess which would, however, be considerably lessened were the Army, Navy, and merchant service abroad not excluded from the reckoning. To each 100 males there were 105 7 females. This is a slightly higher proportion of females than existed at the previous Census. In fact, the pro portion of females to males has been steadily increasing at each Census since 1851, having been successively 104 2, 105 3, 1054, and 105 7. The number of families (single lodgers to whom schedules were supplied counting as separate families) was 5,643,353, which was an increase of 594,337 upon the number in 1871. The number of inhabited houses-that is, of houses in which any person slept on the night of April 3-was 4,833,844, showing an increase of 574,727 in the decennium. There were also 380,684 unoccupied houses and 46,759 in course of construction. The inhabitants of the country may be divided for practical purposes into an urban and a rural population. The urban population, as thus determined, consists of the inhabitants of the chief towns and their immediate neighbourhood, while the rural population includes the inhabitants of the smaller towns as well of the strictly country parishes. Adopting this method of dividing the population, we have the following results: The population of London has almost exactly doubled itself in the course of forty-one years, whereas the population of the rest of England and Wales has taken fifty-seven years to multiply in an equal degree. The metropolis has thus been gaining in its proportions as compared with the country at large; and, whereas at the beginning of the century out of ten inhabitants of England and Wales one lived in London, the proportion has now risen to one out of seven. More precisely, the proportions were 1: 9.3 in 1801, and 1: 6-8 in 1881. Population in England and Wales and in London at the Nine De cennium. England and Wales 37,319,221 1861 20.066,224 1871 22.712.266 Town Population, i.e., inhabitants of the districts and sub-districts which include the chief towns Country Population, i.e., inhabitants of the 20,066,224 2,803,989 13.97 The urban population therefore, using the term in the sense of the inhabitants of the chief towns only or their immediate neighbourhood, stood to the remaining or rural population in the proportion of 147 to 100; the proportion in 1871 having been 132 to 100 This change in the proportions was not due to any decrease of growth in the rural population, which fully maintained the rate of increase reached in the previous decade, but to a considerable rise in the rate of growth of the urban population, this rate having mounted from 18:09 per cent in the previous ten years to 19'63 in the decade just concluded. The population of the twenty great English towns, of which weekly statistics are published by the General Register Office, amounted to 7,578.815, being an increase of 16'9 per cent upon the numbers enumerated in 1871. The rate of increase varied very widely in the different towns, but in one only was there no increase at all. This exception was Manchester, where the population was found to have slightly fallen. With this, however, must be taken into consideration the fact that the closely adjoining town of Salford showed an increase of no less than 41 2 per cent. Taking the two continuous towns together, there was an increase of 8 8 per cent. The population of London was 3,814,571, and by itself somewhat exceeded the aggregate population of the nineteen large provincial towns, which amounted to 3,764,244. No fewer than 560,311 persons were added to the inhabitants of the metropolis in the course of the decade, a number exceeding the entire population of the largest of the provincial towns. The increase of population in the past, as also in the preceding, decade was entirely peripheral. In the centre of London is a compact area, consisting of ten registration districts, in which, owing to the substitution of business premises for dwelling-houses, the population has for a long period been undergoing diminution. The inhabitants of the Central area decreased by 7 8 per cent in the course of the past ten years, having also diminished by 58 per cent in the preceding decade. THE CITY DAY CENSUS.-The City Day Census, taken three weeks after the Imperial Census of the past year, shows the following results:--Total residents, ccupiers, and persons employed, 1881: Males, 196,287; females, 44,095; children, 21,288; total 260,670. The Imperial Census gives for the resident night population alone on Sunday night, April 4, 1881:-Males, 25,085; females, 25.441; total, 50,526. The mercantile and commercial population in 1881 is 210,144; in 1866 it was 170,133, being an increase of 40,011. The decrease in the night residents and caretakers since the Imperial Census of 1871 is 24,371; the persons resorting to the City on foot and in vehicles has greatly increased. In 1881, in a day of twelve hours, 5 a.m. to 5 pm, 589,468; in 1866, in a day of 12 hours, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., 519,613 an increase of persons, 39,855. In 1881, in a day of 16 hours, 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., 739,640; in 1866, in a day of 16 hours, 5 a.m. to 9p.m., 679,744; an increase of persons, 69,896. The rateable value of the City keeps pace with the increase of population. In 1866, when the last day Census was taken, it was £2,109,935; it is now £3,537,561; increase £1,427,626. CENSUS OF IRELAND-GENERAL SUMMARY. 5,159,839 persons (2,522,804 males and 2,637,035 females) were returned, thus showing a decrease since 1871 of 252,538 persons, or 47 per cent: the decrease in the number of males was equal to 4'4 per cent, and in the number of females to 4.9 per cent. There was during the decade a decrease of 60,261 persons, or 4'5 per cent, in the province of Leinster; 69,575, or 50 per cent, in the province of Munster; 93,686 or 5'1 per cent, in the province of Uister; and 29,016, or 34 per cent, in the province of Connaught. The number of inhabitants in each of the provinces and in all Ireland in 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, and 1881 respectively, and the decrease between 1871 and 1881 are shown in the following statement: * Including 403 persons at sea on Census night of 1861 who were returned upon English shipping forms only. number returned on the Census Forms in 1871. The decrease of population in Ireland between 1861 and 1871 amounted | occasion amounts to 47.669, being an increase of 4228, or 9'7 per cent on the to 6-7 per cent as against 4.7 per cent between 1871 and 1881; in the province of Leinster the decrease between 1861 and 1871 amounted to 8.1 per cent, between 1871 and 1881 to 4.5 per cent; in the province of Munster the decrease between 1861 and 1871 was 7.9 per cent, between 1871 and 1881 it was 50 per cent; in the province of Ulster the decrease between 1861 and 1871 was 4:2 per cent, between 1871 and 1881 it was 51 per cent; and in Connaught it was 7.3 per cent between 1861 and 1871, and 3'4 per cent between 1871 and 1881. According to the summaries of the enumerators, 3,951,888 persons returned themselves as Roman Catholics, this number being 198.979, or 4 8 per cent, under the number so returned in 1871; 635,670 were returned under the head of "Protestant Episcopalians," being a decrease of 32,328, or 4 8 per cent, compared with the number tabulated under that head in 1871; 485,503 were returned as Presbyterians, being a decrease of 12,145, or 24 per cent, compared with 1871; the number of Methodists returned on the present The number of uninhabited houses increased between 1871 and 1881 by 15.228, or 48-3 per cent-the increase in the province of Leinster being equal to 72.4 per cent; in Munster, to 27.6 per cent; and in Ulster, to 570 per cent; there was a decrease of eight in the number of uninhabited houses in Connaught. There were 1976 houses returned as "building," being a decrease of 194 compared with the number returned in 1871. The population of the city of Dublin increased during the decade by 1.3 per cent; the increases in the suburban townships ranged as follows:Clontarf, 22-3 per cent; Rathmines and Rathgar, 179; Kingstown, 113; Blackrock, 110; Pembroke, 10'5; and New Kilmainham, 87. The total population of the city and its suburban townships increased between 1871 and 1881 by 40 per cent. The township of Drumcondra, Clonliffe, and Glasnevin, having, in 1881, a population of 4865, has been formed since 1871. |