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CENSUS OF 1891.

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PRELIMINARY REPORT

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES T. RITCHIE, M.P.,

PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD, &c.

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30th June 1891.

SIR,

Total population of England and Wales.

THE total number of persons returned as living in England and Wales at 12 p.m. on April 5th, 1891, was 29,001,018.

This shows an increase of 3,026,579, or of 11.65 per cent., upon the returned at the previous enumeration of April 1881.

Not only was this increase absolutely less than that of the, preceding decennium, 1871—81, but the rate of increase was lower than in any previous decennial period in the century, that is, in any decennium since the first enumeration in this country.

Date of Enumeration.	Number of Inhabited Houses.	POPULATION.			Increase of Population since last Census.	Decennial Rate of Increase per Cent.
		Persons.	Males.	Females.
1801, March 10th	1,575,923	8,892,536	4,254,735	4,637,801	—	—
1811, May 27th	1,797,504	10,164,256	4,873,605	5,290,651	1,271,720	14.30
1822, May 28th	2,088,156	12,000,236	5,850,319	6,149,917	1,835,980	18.06
1831, May 29th	2,481,544	13,896,797	6,771,196	7,125,601	1,896,561	15.80
1841, June 7th	2,943,945	15,914,148	7,777,586	8,136,562	2,017,351	14.52
1851, March 31st	3,278,039	17,927,609	8,781,225	9,146,384	2,013,461	12.65
1861, April 8th	3,739,505	20,066,224	9,776,259	10,289,965	2,138,615	11.93
1871, April 3rd	4,259,117	22,712,266	11,058,934	11,653,332	2,646,042	13.19
1881, April 4th	4,831,519	25,974,439	12,639,902	13,334,537	3,262,173	14.36
1891, April 5th	5,460,976	29,001,018	14,050,620	14,950,398	3,026,579	11.65

Difference between estimated and enumerated population.

Had the rate of increase remained as it was in 1871-81, the addition to the population would have amounted to 3,729,929, whereas it was in reality only 3,026,579; and, as official estimates of the population in the years following on an enumeration are based on the hypothesis that the preceding intercensal rate of growth has been maintained, the estimated population in April 1891 was 703,350 in excess of the actual population. Such differences between estimates of this kind and reality are unavoidable when the interval between two consecutive enumerations is so long as a decennium.

The factors that determine the growth of the population.

The growth of a population is determined by two factors, firstly, the balance between births and deaths, and secondly, the balance between emigration and immigration. Of these two, the former is in this country always a cause of increase, for the births invariably outnumber the deaths; while the latter is always a cause of decrease, for the emigrants are invariably more numerous than the immigrants. Such at any rate has been the case since 1851.

The recent decline in the rate of growth may, therefore, be due to either of two causes, namely, a falling-off in the excess of births over deaths, that is, in the " natural increment," or to an increase in the excess of emigrants¹ over immigrants. As a matter of fact, it was due to both these causes, acting in combination.

Decline of natural increase and increased loss by emigration.

For had the excess of births over deaths, or natural increase been in the same proportion to the population as it was in the preceding decennium, the addition to the population from this cause would have amounted to 3,919,543, whereas it was m fact only 3,630,761, so that there was a falling-off of 283,782 under this heading. Again, had the loss by excess of emigrants borne the same proportion to the population as m 1871-81, the decrease under this heading would have been only 189,614, whereas the figures show that it must have amounted to no less than 604,182.

These two deficiencies, namely, the 288,782 from diminished natural increase and the 414,568 from increased excess of emigrants, together make up the 703,350, by which the enumerated population falls short of the number estimated on the hypothesis of a maintenance of the preceding intercensal growth.

The decline in the natural increase was not due to increased mortality, for the mean annual death-rate in 1881-91 was lower than in any earlier decennium, but to a persistent decline , in the birth-rate, which, as the following table shows, was unprecedentedly low:—

Intercensal Periods.	Increases per cent by Births.	Decreases per cent by Deaths.	Gain per cent by excess of Births over Deaths or Natural Increase.
1841-51	34.64	23.73	10.91
1851-61	36.19	23.58	12.61
1861-71	37.56	23.98	13.58
1871-81	37.89	22.80	15.09
1881-91	34.26	20.28	13.98

It is only, however, as compared with 1871-81 that the natural increase shows any decline; as compared with any earlier decennium, it is still in excess.

As regards the increased loss from excess of emigrants over immigrants, there are no means of ascertaining with accuracy in what degree it was due to increased emigration and in what, if any, to diminished immigration. This much, however, is certain, that emigration was excessively active during the decennium, for while the number of persons of English or Welsh origin who left the "United Kingdom for places outside Europe in the interval between the enumerations of 1871 and 1881 was, so far as could be ascertained by the Board of Trade, 996,038, the number in the next intercensal period rose to 1,571,856. The loss to the population by the excess of emigration amounted as already stated, to 604,182, and, as the following table shows, was very considerably greater than the aggregate losses in the three previous decennia.

Census Years.	POPULATION.		Difference— being loss by excess of Emigration over Immigration.	Increase* per Cent in previous Decennium.		Difference— being loss by excess of Emigration over Immigration.
	As determined by Natural Increment only.	As actually enumerated.		As determined by Natural Increment only.	As determined by actual Enumeration.
1861	20,188,335	20,066,224	122,111	12.61	11.93	0.68
1871	22,791,234	22,712,266	78,968	13.58	13.19	0.39
1881	26,138,746	25,974,439	164,307	15.09	14.36	0.73
1891	29,605,200	29,001,018	604,182	13.98	11.65	2.33

^* The rates of increase in this table refer to the intervals between the several censuses without correction for the very slight inequalities of the periods.

Population in each intercensal year.

It is desirable for many purposes, to know what was the probable population of the country in each of the intercensal years, as well as in the census years themselves. If it be assumed that the rate of growth was uniform throughout the whole decennium and that this rate of growth continued to the middle of the present year, the population of England and W ales in the middle of each year was as follows:—

1881	26,046,112
1882	26,334,776
1883	26,626,639
1884	26,921,737
1885	27,220,105
1886	27,521,780
1887	27,826,798
1888	28,135,197
1889	28,447,014
1890	28,762,287
1891	29,081,047

Proportion of males and females.

Of the 29,001,018 persons enumerated, 14,050,620 were males and 14,950,398 were females. This gives an excess of 899,778 females; an excess which would, however, be considerably reduced were the Army, the Navy, and the Merchant Service abroad not excluded from the reckoning.

To each 100 males enumerated there were 106-4 females. The proportion of females to males has been steadily increasing at each census since 1851, having been successively 104-2, 105-3, 105-4, 105-5, and 106-4 to 100.

The rate of increase in the last decennium was 11.2 per cent, for males and 12.1 per cent, for females. But the "natural increment" of the males, that is the number of male births minus the number of male deaths, was 1,821,366, or 14-5 per cent, of the male population in 1881, while the natural increment of the females was 1,809,395, or 13-6 per cent, of the female population. From this it follows that the 604,182 persons who constituted the balance of emigrants over immigrants consisted of 410,648 males and 193,534 females, and that the increased proportion of females in the population was due entirely to the excess of male emigrants. Had there been neither emigration nor immigration, the females would have been only 104-7 to 100 males.

—	Males.	Females.
Persons enumerated in 1881	12,639,902	13,334,537
Births minus Deaths(April 1881-April 1891)	1,821,366	1,809,395
Population in 1891, by natural increase	14,461,268	15,143,932
Population in 1891, as enumerated	14,050,620	14,950,398
Difference, or excess of emigrants over immigrants	410,648	193,534

Number of families.

According to the instructions given to the enumerators every occupier of a tenement. whether such tenement consisted of an entire house, or of an apartment or part of a house was to have a separate schedule for himself and family, and thus the number of schedules collected should tally with the number of families, or separate establishments. It is, however, to say the least very doubtful whether this instruction was rigidly observed by the enumerators, and it is certain that in very many cases lodgers, occupying separate apartments, if they received separate schedules, did not make use of them, but were returned as members of their landlord's family The number of separate occupiers must therefore be in excess of the number of schedules. As however, a similar under-statement of occupiers doubtlessly occurs in every enumeration, the figures may be used for purposes of comparison, without much risk.

The number, then, of schedules collected in 1891 was 6,146,901, showing an increase or 513,709, or 9.1 per cent, upon the number collected in 1881. This increase is considerably less than that of the population, of which the growth was 11.7 per cent.; and while the average number of individuals in a family was 4.61 in 1881, in 1891 it had apparently risen, in spite of the diminished birth-rate and marriage-rate, to 4.72. The change is but slight, but seems to point to an increasing under-statement of occupiers.

Number of houses.

As regards houses there is a similar uncertainty to that concerning families. The instruction to the enumerators was that they should consider every building that was separated from the next adjoining building by an unbroken party wall and such only, to be a separate house. There is, however, very good reason for believing that this instruction was not universally observed, and that often a block of buildings, consisting according to the definition of several distinct houses, was treated as a single house while on the other hand portions of one and the same house, held as different tenements, were often counted as separate houses. There is, moreover, very good ground for believing that the introduction into the enumeration book of a new column, in which particulars were to be inserted as to the number of rooms in a tenement has, by confusing the enumerator, materially added to the frequency of these errors, so that the figures must be received with some reservation.

Taking them however, as they stand, the inhabited houses numbered 5,460,976, showing an increase of 629,457, or of ISO per cent, upon the number returned in 1881.

While the inhabited houses underwent this increase, the number of uninhabited houses and of houses in process of construction actually declined. Of the former there were 380,117, and of the latter 38,407, whereas in 1881 the numbers bad been respectively 386,676 and 46,414.

The average number of occupants to each inhabited house was 5.31, against 5.38 in 1881, and 5.33 in 1871.

Rate of increase and decrease in different areas.

The increase of population was by no means equably spread over the country. In 271 of the 632 registration districts into which England and Wales are divided for registration purposes the returns (Table XII.) show an actual falling-off in the number of inhabitants, and in 202 out of these 271 districts there had also been a decline of population between 1871 and 1881.

Even when larger areas, such as counties, are taken, there are some in widen the population declined, while in the remainder the rates of increase were excessively unequal.

In the following table the counties are arranged in the order of increase and decrease in the last decennium.

TABLE OF COUNTIES.

Counties showing Increase.	Increase per Cent. 1881-91	Counties showing Increase.	Increase per Cent. 1881-91	Counties showing Increase.	Increase per Cent. 1881-91	Counties showing Decrease.	Decrease per Cent. 1881-91
Essex	36.3	Sussex	12.2	Buckingham- shire	5.1	Carnarvonshire	0.9
Glamorgan- shire	34.4	Middlesex	11.3	Gloucester- shire	4.8	Brecknockshire	1.2
Surrey	20.5	Northampton- shire	10.9	Devonshire	4.7	Cornwall	2.4
Monmouth- shire	19.5	Staffordshire	10.4	Carmarthen- shire	4.6	Anglesey	2.6
Durham	17.2	Yorkshire, East Riding	9.4	Oxfordshire	3.6	Huntingdon- shire	2.9
Kent	16.8	Berkshire	9.2	Suffolk	3.5	Pembrokeshire	2.9
Northumber- land	16.7	Warwickshire	9.2	Somersetshire	3.2	Rutlandshire	3.6
Hampshire	16.3	Worcestershire	8.8	Westmorland	3.0	Flintshire	4.0
Leicestershire	16.3	Hertfordshire	8.4	Norfolk	2.7	Herefordshire	4.3
Derbyshire	14.3	Bedfordshire	7.5	Wiltshire	2.3	Shropshire	4.7
Lancashire	13.7	Cumberland	6.3	Dorsetshire	1.8	Merionethshire	5.3
Nottingham- shire	13.7	Yorkshire, North Riding	6.3	Cambridge- shire	1.7	Radnorshire	7.4
Cheshire	13.4	Denbighshire	5.4	Lincolnshire	0.6	Cardiganshire	10.9
Yorkshire, West Riding	12.2					Montgomery- shire	11.7

Speaking generally, the countries in which the rates of increase were highest are counties which are largely affected by the presence of London, namely, Essex, Surrey, and, in a lesser degree, Middlesex and Kent; or counties in which coal-mining is the predominant industry, such as Glamorganshire, Monmouthshire, Durham, and Northumberland. Then follow the manufacturing counties; while last of all come the rural counties, with rates of increase far below the general average, or with actual decrease. Of the 14 counties that show a decrease, ten, namely, Brecknockshire, Pembrokeshire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire, Cardiganshire, Cornwall, Huntingdonshire, Rutlandshire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire also showed declines in 1881.

There was a decline in no less than nine of the 12 Welsh counties; but notwithstanding this, so great was the growth in Glamorganshire, that the rate of increase for Wales as a whole was almost precisely the same as for England.

The counties to which the figures given above refer are the old historical areas, that is, the areas which are ordinarily meant when the term county is used. But there are also other areas that are designated by the same title, namely, the registration or union counties, which are aggregates of registration districts or poor law unions, and since the passing of the Local Government Act of 1888, the administrative counties'. These latter differ from the ancient counties, firstly, in that certain urban sanitary districts which lie partly in one and partly in another ancient county are for administrative purposes included in that county which contains the larger portion of the population, and secondly, in that many of the larger towns have been made into county boroughs, and have administrative powers of their own. The differences in population between these three kinds of county are often very considerable ; and care must be taken by those who use the census figures not to confound them together. The population, for instance, of the ancient county of Derby is 527,886, while that of the registration county is 432,414, and that of the administrative county only 426,621. The figures for the ancient counties or counties proper are given in Table II., p. 2, those for the registration counties in Table X., page 37, and those for the administrative counties and the county boroughs in Table IV., pp. 14, 15.

Urban and rural populations.

The terms urban and rural are habitually used without any such precise meaning as would enable a clear line of demarcation to be drawn between the two. For statistical purposes, however, some strict definition must be adopted ; and probably it will be best, as certainly it will be most convenient, to define the urban population as the aggregate inhabitants of London and the urban sanitary districts, the remainder of the population constituting the rural population.

At the time of the census in 1881 there were, in addition to London, 966 urban sanitary districts. In the interval between that date and the census of 1891 some of these urban districts had been amalgamated with each other, one or two had been reduced to rural districts, while many new ones had been constituted, the general result being that in April 1891 there were 1,006 urban districts, London being for convenience reckoned as one.

Of these, six had populations exceeding 250,000 ; in 18 the population was between 100,000 and 250,000; in 38 between 50,000 and 100,000; in 120 between 20,000 and 50,000 ; in 176 between 10,000 and 20,000; in 453 between 3,000 and 10,000 ; while in. the remaining 195 it was under 3,000. These last, or many of them, can perhaps scarcely be considered as towns or as more than villages; but their aggregate population is so small as compared with that of the entire 1,006 districts, that it is not worth while excluding them from the list, and so departing from the simple definition of urban that was adopted above.

Urban Sanitary Districts, with Population of—	Number of Districts.	Aggregate Population.		Mean Percentage of Increase of Population, 1881-91.
		1881.	1891.
250,000 and upwards	6*	5,843,406	6,375,645	9.1
100,000 to 250,000	18	2,345,356	2,793,625	19.1
50,000 to 100,000	38	2,124,754	2,610,976	22.9
20,000 to 50,000	120	2,984,074	3,655,025	22.5
10,000 to 20,000	176	2,010,812	2,391,076	18.9
3,000 to 10,000	453	2,379,940	2,609,141	9.6
under 3,000	195	357,832	367,282	2.6
Total	1,006	18,046,174	20,802,770	15.3

^* Including the Administrative County of London, which is here reckoned as one district.

The aggregate population of these 1,006 urban districts amounted to 20,802,770; so that no less than 71.7 per cent, of the total population of England and Wales were living in districts that had been considered sufficiently urban in character to be invested with the powers of urban sanitary authorities; the division of the people being as follows:—

—	Population.	Per Cent.
Urban	20,802,770	71.7
Rural	8,198,248	28.3
Total	29,001,018	100.0

The population in 1881 of these 1,006 urban districts, a certain number of which, however, were not urban at that date, was 18,046,174, so that the increase in these urban districts in the course of the decennium amounted to 15.3 per cent., while the increase among the inhabitants of the rest of the country was only 3.4 per cent. ; and these figures may be taken as representing with sufficiently approximate accuracy the respective increases in the urban and the rural populations.

The urban population increases, then, very much more rapidly than the rural population, And not only so, but the larger, or rather the more populous, the urban district, and the more decided, therefore, its urban character, the higher, speaking generally and with many individual exceptions, is its rate of growth. This is well seen in the table given on the preceding page, where the urban districts are grouped by their populations. At the bottom of the list are the districts with less than 3,000 inhabitants, districts, as already mentioned, often only urban in name; and in these the rate of increase was only 2.6 per cent. Next above this group come the districts with populations up to 10,000; here the rate was 9.6 ; in the next higher group the rate was 18.9, and so on successively until the districts with from 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants are reached, and here the rate was 22.9 per cent., and at its maximum. After this, in the still more populous towns, the rate becomes smaller, in the highest group of all being only 9.1 per cent. This appears a contradiction to the statement made above that the growth is generally most rapid in the most populous towns ; but the contradiction is probably, or at any rate possibly, only apparent, and to be explained by the fact that in these excessively populous towns there is no longer space for internal growth, and that newcomers have to settle outside the municipal or official boundary, and so are not reckoned in the population.

Towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants.

Among the towns are 62 with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The following is a list of these, arranged in the order of their populations. In some cases the boundaries of the towns have been extended since 1881; and when such is the case the population given for 1881 is the population at that date of the area as now extended.

URBAN SANITARY DISTRICT, OR TOWNS.	Enumerated Population.		Increase per Cent.
	1881.	1891.	1881-91.
62 Towns	10,294,866	11,759,871	14.2
London	3,815,544	4,211,056	10.4
Liverpool*	552,508	517,951	-6.3
Manchester*	462,303	505,343	9.3
Birmingham	400,774	429,171	7.1
Leeds	309,119	367,506	18.9
Sheffield	284,508	324,243	14.0
Bristol	206,874	221,665	7.1
Bradford*	194,495	216,361	11.2
Nottingham	186,575	211,984	13.6
West Ham	128,953	204,902	58.9
Kingston upon Hull	165,690	199,991	20.7
Salford	176,235	198,136	12.4
Newcastle on Tyne	145,359	186,345	28.2
Portsmouth	127,989	159,255	24.4
Leicester	122,376	142,051	16.1
Oldham	111,343	131,463	18.1
Sunderland	116,542	130,921	12.3
Cardiff	82,761	128,849	55.7
Blackburn	104,014	120,064	15.4
Brighton	107,546	115,402	7.3
Bolton	105,414	115,002	9.1
Preston*	96,537	107,573	11.4
Croydon	78,811	102,697	30.3
Norwich	87,842	100,964	14.9
Birkenhead	84,006	99,184	18.1
Huddersfield*	86,502	95,422	10.3
Derby	81,168	94,146	16.0
Swansea*	76,430	90,423	18.3
Ystradyfodwg	55,632	88,350	58.8
Burnley*	63,339	87,058	37.4
Gateshead	65,803	85,709	30.3
Plymouth	73,794	84,179	14.1
Halifax	73,630	82,864	12.5
Wolverhampton	75,766	82,620	9.0
South Shields	56,875	78,431	37.9
Middlesbrough	55,934	75,516	35.0
Walsall*	59,402	71,791	20.9
Rochdale	68,866	71,458	3.8
Tottenham	36,574	71,336	95.0
St Helens	57,403	71,288	24.2
Stockport	59,553	70,253	18.0
Aston Manor	53,842	68,639	27.5
York*	61,789	66,984	8.4
Southampton	60,051	65,325	8.8
Leyton*	27,026	63,106	133.5
Willesden	27,613	61,266	121.9
Northampton	51,881	61,016	17.6
Reading*	48,769	60,054	23.1
West Bromwich	56,295	59,489	5.7
Merthyr Tydfil	48,861	58,080	18.9
Ipswich	50,546	57,260	13.3
Bury*	54,717	57,206	4.5
Wigan	48,194	55,013	14.1
Hanley	48,361	54,846	13.4
Devonport	48,939	54,736	11.8
Newport* (Mon.)	38,469	54,695	42.2
Warrington*	42,552	52,742	23.9
Coventry*	44,831	52,720	17.6
Hastings	42,258	52,340	23.9
Grimsby*	40,010	51,876	29.7
Bath	51,814	51,843	0.1
Barrow in Furness*	47,259	51,712	9.4

^* The areas of these towns were extended in the decennium 1881-91, but
in every case the population in 1881 relates to the town as constituted in 1891.

The rates of increase differ enormously in the different towns, and while there are some in the immediate neighbourhood of London, as Tottenham, Leyton, and Willesden, which, have doubled or more than doubled their populations during the decennium, there are others in which the increase has been considerably less than that of the country at large. In all, however, with one exception, there has been some amount of increase. This exception is Liverpool, in which great city, the next after London in population, there has been a decline of 6.3 per cent.

It must not be supposed that a falling-off in the rate of increase, or even an actual decline in the population, of a great town, implies any corresponding decline in its prosperity. It may, indeed, imply the very opposite. For it may be that the limited area within the official boundary of the town has become too valuable for ordinary residence, and that warehouses and business premises have taken the place of dwelling-houses ; the displaced inhabitants, as also the new-comers, settling themselves outside the recognised town limits. This process, as is well known, has long been going on in the central districts of London, where the resident population has diminished with each successive census; and doubtlessly it has been going on, if in a less conspicuous degree, in other cities. Thus the real growth of a great town can oftentimes' only be properly estimated if the official boundaries are ignored and the ring of suburbs be included within its area. The case of Manchester illustrates this. In 1881 it was found that of the 20 great towns, which at that date had a place in the Registrar-General's Weekly Return, Manchester was the only one in which the population had declined in the preceding decennium, the falling-off being 2.8 per cent. But in the interval between the enumerations of 1881 and 1891 the municipal area of Manchester was extended so as to include the former suburbs, and the population of this wider area, so far from having fallen off in 1871-81 by 2.8 per cent., had in reality increased by some 8 or 9 per cent, so nearly as can be estimated, and now in 1881-91 has further increased by another 9.3 per cent. A similar change would occur in the figures for Liverpool if the excessively restricted municipal area of that city were extended so as to include the suburbs; for, while the municipal population has been declining, the population in these extra-municipal suburbs has increased by somewhat more than 60 per cent., and the population of the whole area, municipal and suburban together, has gone up 5.9 per cent, during the decennium.²

County boroughs.

In a schedule to the Local Government Act of 1888 a list of large boroughs is given, to which were granted by that Act the position of administrative counties arid the title of county boroughs ; these boroughs being stated to be either counties of themselves or to have had on June 1st, 1888, populations of not less than 50,000. To the boroughs thus scheduled have since been added by order two others, namely, Oxford and Grimsby, raising the total number of county boroughs to 63. Among these are 10 in which the population enumerated in April last did not reach 50,000, namely, Bootle, Canterbury, Chester, Dudley, Exeter, Gloucester, Lincoln, Oxford, Worcester, and Yarmouth; while, on the other hand, there are in the list of urban sanitary districts two boroughs, namely,³ Newport (Mon.) and Warrington, and six non-municipal urban districts, namely, Ystradyfodwg, Tottenham, Aston Manor, Leyton, Willesden, and Merthyr Tydfil, in each of which the population now exceeds 50,000.

London.

The population of London, meaning thereby the London of the Registrar-General, which, with an insignificant exception,⁴ coincides with the administrative county of London, was 4,211,050, showing an increase of 395,512, or 10.4 per cent, upon the population of 1881. Thus the population of London increased in a somewhat lower ratio than the population of England and Wales as a whole ; and the fact is notable, inasmuch as it is the first time that such a phenomenon has presented itself, London having been found in every preceding intercensal period to have gained more or less in its proportions as compared with the country at large.

Year of Enumeration.	Population in England and Wales and in London at the Ten Enumerations.
	England and Wales.	London.	Persons in London to 100 in England and Wales.
1801	8,892,536	958,863	10.78
1811	10,164,256	1,138,815	11.20
1821	12,000,236	1,378,947	11.49
1831	13,896,797	1,654,994	11.91
1841	15,914,148	1,948,417	12.24
1851	17,927,609	2,362,236	13.18
1861	20,066,224	2,803,98	13.97
1871	22,712,266	3,254,260	14.33
1881	25,974,439	3,815,544	14.69
1891	29,001,018	4,211,056	14.52

It was pointed out in the last Census Report that in the centre of London was a group of districts in which the population had long been undergoing decrease, owing to the substitution of business premises for dwelling-houses; and that round this central area, and constituting the rest of Registration or Inner London, was a circle or ring of districts, all of which had undergone more or less rapid increase, the growth, speaking generally, being greater the farther the district was from (he centre, and (he rate of growth, it may be added, showing in most cases a tendency to become smaller and smaller; arid, lastly, that outside this Registration London was a wide belt of suburban districts, conveniently designated the Outer Ring, in which the population was increasing with extraordinary rapidity.

All these phenomena are repeated in the present enumeration. All the central districts that showed decreases in 1861-71 and in 1871-81 showed, with one exception, further decrease in 1881-91. The exception was Whitechapel, which, after declining 3.0 per rent, in 1861-71 and 6.8 per cent, in 1871-81, showed an increase of 4.3 per cent, in the next decennium, probably owing to an additional influx of foreigners. On the other hand, two of the districts in the Inner Ring which had previously shown increases, namely, St. Pancras and Stepney, are now added to the list of districts in which the population is declining.

The following table shows the changes in these central districts in the last three decennia.

Districts in Central Area.	Decrease per Cent.			Districts in Central Area.	Decrease per Cent.
	1861-71.	1871-81.	1881-91.		1861-71.	1871-81.	1881-91.
St George Hanover Square	0.0	4.2	10.4	Holborn	2.5	7.1	6.8
Westminster	3.0	9.1	19.9	London City	33.0	32.3	25.5
Marylebone	1.5	2.7	8.1	Shoreditch	1.7	0.5	2.0
St Pancras*	+11.4	+6.7	0.8	St George in the East	1.7	1.9	3.4
St Giles	1.0	15.6	12.1	Stepney*	+2.0	+1.5	1.6
Strand	14.3	18.8	18.2

^* In these districts the population decreased in the last decennium only.

The total decrease in this central group of districts in 1881-91 was 7.2 per cent. ; having been 2.7 and 4.6 per cent, in the two next preceding decennia ; the whole decrease in the 30 years amounting to 13.9 per cent. It will be noticed that the rate of decrease has become larger and larger with each successive decennium.

In all the remaining districts of Registration or Inner London, of which the following table gives particulars, there was, as already said, an increase, this increase being, as a rule, only slight in such districts as border on the central area, but very large in such as are more remote. Taking the whole group together, the increase in the ten years amounted to 17.5 per cent., having been 29.8 and 29.3 per cent, in the two next preceding decennia; so that here also, as well as in the central area, there has been gradually diminishing growth.

Other Districts of Inner London.	Increase per Cent.			Other Districts of Inner London.	Increase per Cent.
	1861-71.	1871-81.	1881-91.		1861-71.	1871-81.	1881-91.
Paddington	27.7	10.6	10.1	Poplar	46.9	34.5	6.5
Kensington	71.6	35.6	1.9	St Saviour Southwark	0.7	11.5	3.8
Fulham	64.9	74.0	64.5	St Olave Southwark	20.1	10.1	1.4
Chelsea	11.5	24.6	9.2	Lambeth	28.6	21.8	8.5
Hampstead	69.0	40.8	50.5	Wandsworth	77.6	68.3	46.1
Islington	37.6	32.3	12.9	Camberwell	55.7	67.6	26.1
Hackney	50.0	49.2	23.1	Greeenwich	17.0	30.4	26.0
Bethnal Green	14.3	5.7	1.7	Lewisham	61.2	42.2	30.0
Whitechapel*	-3.0	-6.8	4.3	Woolwich†	-2.8	10.2	32.8
Mile End Old Town	27.5	13.3	1.8	—	—	—	—

^* In this district the population increased in the last decennium only.

^† In this district the population decreased in the decennium 1861-71.

The same tendency to diminution in the rate of growth is visible, though to a much smaller degree, in the population of the Outer Ring, that is to say, in that belt of suburban districts which lie outside the boundary of Registration London, but are included in the Metropolitan Police District. Here the increase in 1861-71 was 50.8 per cent.; in the next decennium, 1871-81, it declined slightly, falling to 50.5 per cent.; while in 1881-91 the fall became more distinct, and the rate was only 49.5. It would thus appear that even this wide belt of suburbs is beginning to show some signs of repletion; and possibly were we to extend the inquiry to a still wider radius, we should find that there was a further ring of districts, outside the Metropolitan Police Area, in which the gradual filling up of the central areas was causing more and more active growth.

—	Population.				Rates of Increase or Decrease per cent.
	1861.	1871.	1881.	1891.	1861-71.	1871-81.	1881-91.
Central Area	1,187,687	1,155,462	1,101,994	1,022,529	-2.7	-4.6	-7.2
Rest of Inner London	1,616,160	2,098,323	2,713,550	3,188,527	+29.8	+29.8	+17.5
Inner or Registration London	2,803,847	3,253,785	3,815,544	4,211,056	+16.0	+17.3	+10.4
Outer Ring	4,18,873	631,856	951,117	1,422,276	+50.8	+50.5	+49.5
Greater London	3,222,720	3,885,641	4,766,661	5,633,332	+20.6	+22.7	+18.2

Parliamentary areas.

The number of Members of the House of Commons for England and Wales, irrespective of the Universities, being 490, and the enumerated population being 29,001,018, an equal numerical distribution would give one member to 59,186 persons. The figures in Table III., pp. 3-13, show how far on either side the actual distribution departs from such equality. Taking the extreme limits, there are, among the single member constituencies, seven in which the population is under 18,000, namely. Durham, Pontefract, Bury St. Edmunds, Grantham, Salisbury, Montgomery District of Boroughs, and Penryn with Falmouth, while on the other hand there are also seven with populations above 100,000, namely, Cardiff District of Boroughs, Wandsworth, West Ham (South), Romford Division of Essex, Croydon, Deptford, and the Walthamstow Division of Essex.

In the following table the constituencies are grouped according to the proportion between their population and their members, and the number of constituencies in each group is given.

Population to one Representative.	Number of Constituencies.
10,000 and upwards	7
90,000 to 100,000	19
80,000 to 90,000	26
70,000 to 80,000	66
60,000 to 70,000	08
50,000 to 60,000	28
40,000 to 50,000	79
30,000 to 40,000	23
20,000 to 30,000	19
10,000 to 20,000	15
Total	490

Population of the United Kingdom.

So far this Report has referred exclusively to England and Wales, that is, to that portion alone of the kingdom in which the enumeration was carried out under our immediate superintendence. By the courtesy, however, of our colleagues in Scotland and Ireland, and with the assistance of the enumeration books forwarded to us for compilation by the respective governors of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, we are enabled to submit in summary, subject to any future correction of the, as yet, unrevised figures, tables showing the population of the United Kingdom and of the islands in the British seas on the night of the census.

The total population of the United Kingdom consisted on April 6th last of 37,740,283 persons. This was an increase of 2,855,435 upon the enumerated population in 1881, and was equivalent to an average daily addition of 781 persons to the community throughout the decennium, the daily addition having been 931 in 1871-81 and 701 in 1861-71.

ENUMERATED POPULATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AT SUCCESSIVE CENSUSES, 1821-91.

—	1821.	1831.	1841.	1851.	1861.	1871.	1881.	1891.
United Kingdom	20,893,584	24,028,584	26,730,929	27,390,629	28,927,485	31,484,661	34,884,848	37,740,283
England	11,281,883	13,090,523	15,002,443	16,921,888	18,954,444	21,495,131	24,613,926	27,482,104
Wales	718,353	806,274	911,705	1,005,721	1,111,780	1,217,135	1,360,513	1,518,914
Scotland	2,091,521	2,364,386	2,620,134	2,888,742	3,062,294	3,360,018	3,735,573	4,033,103
Ireland	6,801,827	7,767,401	8,196,597	6,574,278	5,798,967	5,412,377	5,174,836	4,706,162

Rate of increase in the decennium.

The decennial rate of increase was 8.2 per cent., and lower than in either of the two next preceding decennia, in which it had been successively 8.8 and 10.8 per cent. The falling-off in the rate of growth was shared by all the divisions of the kingdom, but unequally; the smallest decline of growth being in Wales, where the increase was only very slightly lower than it had been in the previous decennium, falling merely from 11.8 to 11.6 per cent. ; while the greatest change was in Ireland, where the population declined no less than 9.1 per cent., the decline in the two previous decennia having been respectively 6.7 and 4.4 per cent.

INCREASE OR DECREASE PER CENT. OF THE POPULATION IN SUCCESSIVE INTERCENSAL PERIODS

—	1821-31	1831-41	1841-51	1851-61	1861-71	1871-81	1881-91
United Kingdom	15.0	11.2	2.5	5.6	8.8	10.8	8.2
England	16.0	14.6	12.8	12.0	13.4	14.5	11.7
Wales	12.2	13.1	10.3	10.5	9.5	11.8	11.6
Scotland	13.0	10.8	10.2	6.0	9.7	11.2	8.0
Ireland	14.2	5.5	-19.8	-11.8	-6.7	-4.4	-9.1

NOTE.—Where no minus sign is prefixed the figures denote au increase.

The population of England and Wales now forms 72.8 per cent., or nearly three-quarters of the total population of the United Kingdom, the proportion borne by it having increased uninterruptedly in each successive decennium. The population of Scotland constitutes 10.7 per cent, of the whole, which was also the proportion borne by it at each of the two preceding enumerations. On the other hand the inhabitants of Ireland, who in 1821 and 1831 were nearly one-third of the aggregate population, now form only 12.5 per cent., or one-eighth of it.

PROPORTION PER CENT. OF THE POPULATION RESIDING IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE KINGDOM

—	1821.	1831.	1841.	1851.	1861.	1871.	1881.	1891.
England	54.0	54.5	56.1	61.8	65.5	68.3	70.6	72.8
Wales	3.4	3.4	3.4	3.7	3.8	3.8	3.9	4.0
Scotland	10.0	9.8	9.8	10.5	10.6	10.7	10.7	10.7
Ireland	32.6	32.3	30.7	24.0	20.1	17.2	14.8	12.5

Islands in the British Seas.

The population of the Isle of Man, which in 1881 was found to have declined 0.9 per cent, in the preceding decennium, is now returned as 55,598, showing an increase of 2,040, or 3.8 per cent.

POPULATION of the ISLANDS in the BRITISH SEAS enumerated at each of the Censuses, 1821 to 1891

—	1821.	1831.	1841.	1851.	1861.	1871.	1881.	1891.
ISLANDS IN THE BRITISH SEAS	89,508	103,710	124,040	143,126	143,447	144,638	141,260	147,870
Isle of Man	40,081	41,000	47,975	52,387	52,469	54,042	53,558	55,598
Channel Islands:
Jersey	28,600	36,582	47,544	57,020	55,613	56,627	52,445	54,518
Guernsey (with Herm and Jethou)	20,339	24,540	26,698	29,806	29,850	30,685	32,638	35,339
Alderney	No Return	1,045	1,038	3,333	4,932	2,738	2,048	1,843
Sark	488	543	785	580	583	546	571	572

A similar change has occurred in the case of Jersey. For here also there was a decline of 7.4 per cent, between 1871 and 1881, whereas the present population, numbering 54,518, shows, an increase in the decennium of 4.0 per cent. In Guernsey the population which in 1881 had increased by 6.4 per cent. now shows a further increase of 8.3 per cent., and numbers 35 339 persons. It is only in the small islet of Alderney that there has been any decline in the last decennium, but the inhabitants of this islet are so few, only 1,843, that this change scarcely affects the aggregate for the islands in the British seas, which has increased 4.7 per cent., and consists of 147,870 persons.

INCREASE OR DECREASE PER CENT. of the POPULATION of the ISLANDS in the BRITISH SEAS in SUCCESSIVE INTERCENSAL PERIODS.

—	1821-31.	1831-41.	1841-51.	1851-61.	1861-71.	1871-81.	1881-91.
ISLAND IN THE BRITISH SEAS	15.9	19.6	15.4	0.2	0.8	-2.3	4.7
Isle of Man	2.3	17.0	9.2	0.2	3.0	-0.9	3.8
Channel Islands:
Jersey	27.9	30.0	19.9	-2.5	1.8	-7.4	4.0
Guernsey (with Herm and Jethou)	20.7	8.8	11.6	0.1	2.8	6.4	8.3
Alderney	No Return	-0.7	321.1	48.0	-44.5	-25.2	-10.0
Sark	11.3	44.6	-26.1	0.5	-6.3	4.6	-0.2

Such, sir, are the results of the recent enumeration, so far as they have as yet been ascertained. Doubtlessly the detailed revision to which the documents will now be subjected will necessitate some slight alterations hereafter in the figures. These alterations, however, it may be confidently predicted, will not be such as to affect the general results in any serious degree.

We have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servants,

BRYDGES P. HENNIKER, Registrar-General.               
WILLIAM OGLE, Statistical Superintendent.               

NOEL A. HUMPHREYS, Secretary.

---

¹ "Emigrant" as used in this report includes:—(1.) Emigrants proper, that is persons who have left the country to' establish themselves outside Europe. (2.) Persons who have gone abroad as travellers, &c. (3.) Persons who have migrated from England and Wales to other parts of the United Kingdom. (4.) Any persons who died in the decennium, but, whose deaths were not registered at the date of the enumeration. " Immigrant" of course is used to include the opposites of these groups. The return of emigrants on page 117 includes most of group 1 and also some out of group 2, but of the other groups no numerical account whatsoever can as yet be given.

² In making the above calculation, the following areas have been taken as approximately representing suburbs: The sub-districts of Crosby and Litherland, with the parishes of Bootle, Walton-on-the Hill, and Wavertree, and the extra-municipal parts of West Derby and Toxteth Park.

³ By an order already issued, Newport will become a county borough in November next.

⁴ The civil parish of Penge is included in the administrative county of London but not in Registration London.

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