Area and Population of the British Empire

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XII.—AREA AND POPULATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

It is desirable on many grounds that the population of the Queen's dominions should be enumerated simultaneously. And accordingly the Census of all the Australian Colonies was taken on the same day (April 8th) as the Census of England, and on the same plan, with this exception, that the numbers in the several religious denominations were distinguished in the southern hemisphere, without any of those deplorable consequences which were anticipated from the same kind of inquiry in England, The population of nearly all the colonies and dependencies was enumerated in 1861, except India.

Exclusive of India, the enumerated population of the United Kingdom, with its colonies and possessions, amounted to 38,817,957 souls, having at their disposal 3,486,878 square miles, or 9)030,645 square kilometers of territory.

The Colonial Census is so important that we have thought it right to give a summary of the results in the Appendix, pp. 170-212.

The Government of India has always been too weak to procure an accurate enumeration of the population, notwithstanding the remarkable and partial success in taking the Census of certain provinces under able administrators. The population we give of India must therefore be considered as only a rough approximation, available for some purposes, until the results of an accurate enumeration are obtained by the present Government of India.

The area of British India is 933,722 square miles, and the population 135,571,351 by estimate, which makes the area of the British Empire 4,420,600 square miles, and the population 174,389,308.

TABLE XXVI.—POPULATION of the BRITISH EMPIRE, 1861.

  AREA POPULATION
Square Miles Square Kilometers
ENGLAND, her COLONIES, and POSSESSIONS 4,420,600 11,448,886 174389308
       
United Kingdom (including Army, Navy and Merchant Seamen at Home and Abroad 121,115 313,675 29,321,288
British Colonies and Possessions (exclusive of military) 3,365,763 8,716,970 9,496,669
British India (Exclusive of the British Army 62,893, stationed in India) 933,722 2,418,241 135,571,351
       
European Possessions 1,163 3,012 397,743
North American Colonies 512,193 1,326,526 3,333,507
West Indian Possessions 106,449 275,692 1,114,508
African Possessions 130,756 388,644 1,004,595
Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean 7,647 19,805 7,426
Possessions in the Indian Ocean, and Hong Kong 25,485 66,003 2,363,767
Australia and New Zealand 2,582,070 6,687,288 1,322,937
       
Total 9,544,483
Deduct Military stationed in the colonies 47,814
       
Populations of British Colonies and Possessions (Exclusive of the military) 9,496,669

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