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POPULATION] their resources during the 19th century. Thus the preceding counties showed an increase, under normal conditions, exceeding 10% during the ten years 1891–1901, the percentage of increase in 1871–1891 being given for comparison.

It will be observed that three of the home counties occur in the first four in the above list. It is interesting to note, in this connexion, that the increase of population diminished steadily, in the three decades under notice, within the area covered by the administrative county of London, which is only the central part of urban London (compare the population table of the great urban districts, below). This was 17.44% in 1871–1881, 10.39 in 1881–1891, and 7.3 in 1891–1901. This illustrates the constant tendency for the residential districts of a city to radiate away from its centre, which appears, though in a modified degree, in the case of all the great English cities.

During the period 1891–1901 five English and five Welsh counties showed a decrease per cent in the population. The English counties were:—

The Welsh counties were Montgomeryshire, Cardiganshire, Flintshire, Merionethshire and Brecknockshire, the first-named showing the highest decrease, 5.08%, in 1891–1901. These counties are principally agricultural, and it is in agricultural

districts elsewhere that the increase of population is slightest. But in 1871–1881 a decrease was found in the case of fifteen counties in all, and in 1881–1891 in the case of thirteen, whereas in 1891–1901, although Radnorshire, which returned a decrease previously, now returned an abnormal increase owing to the temporary employment of workmen on the construction of the Birmingham waterworks, the number fell to 10, and the average percentage also fell. This suggested some tendency to return to a state of equilibrium as between urban and rural districts. This is in a measure borne out by the movement of population in the districts classed as purely rural in 1901. In these there was an increase per cent of 14.2 in 1811–1821, which fell off to 2.8 in 1841–1851. A decrease then set in and grew from 0.2 in 1851–1861 to 0.67 in 1881–1891, but in 1891–1901 an increase, 1.95, was once more recorded. But the drain on the rural population continued heavy, for in the same purely rural area, which had a population in 1901 of 1,330,319, the excess of births over deaths was 150,437, but the actual increase of population was only 25,492, leaving a heavy loss (9.6%) to be accounted for by migration, the term used in this connexion in the general report of the Census to include movement of population to any new locality, home or foreign.

Housing.—The total area of England and Wales covered by urban districts (a term which coincides pretty nearly with that of towns, which bears no technical meaning in England) was 3,848,987 acres, and contained a population of 25,058,355 in 1901, the increase in the decade 1891–1901 being 15.2%. The number of inhabited houses in the whole country in 1901, namely 6,260,852, may be compared with the numbers in 1801 (1,575,923) and 1851 (3,278,039); it gives an average of 5.2 persons to each house. This average has decreased with some regularity from a maximum of 5.75 in 1821, but there is no certain evidence on which to affirm or deny that the average cubic capacity of dwelling-houses has been maintained. The urban population averaged 5.4 persons to a house, but varied greatly in different towns. Thus, an average below 4.4 is quoted for Rochdale, Halifax, Huddersfield, Yarmouth, Bradford and Stockport, while the average for London was 7.93, and for Gateshead, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and South Shields, in the northern industrial district of the Tyne, and for Devonport, the average exceeded 8. The average of persons to a house in rural districts was 4.6.

Vital Statistics.—“The increase or decrease of population is governed by two factors: (1) the balance between births and deaths, and (2) the balance between immigration and emigration.” The following table is therefore given to show (1) the percentage of increase by births and decrease by deaths in each decade from 1851, and (2) the difference at the close of each decade (i.e. in the later year mentioned in each line) between the population which would have followed upon the natural increase unaffected by migration and the population as actually enumerated. In the case of (2) the actual population has always been exceeded by the estimate based on natural increase, and this demonstrates an excess of emigration over immigration.

The proportion of males to females is 1000 to 1068, this being a higher proportion of females than any recorded in the 19th century, during which the lowest proportion of females was 1036 in 1821. The proportion rose at each census from 1851. But on the other hand 1000 male children were born against only 965 female, on an average in 1891–1901. This excess of male births, which is usual, has been ascertained to find its equilibrium, through a higher rate of infant mortality among the males, about the tenth year of life, and is finally changed by perilous male occupations and other causes, including the stronger tendency of males to emigration. The proportion of females varies much in different localities, being highest in such districts as London and the home counties, which are residential, and in which, therefore, many domestic servants are enumerated; and Somersetshire, Bedfordshire and other seats of industries which especially occupy women (e.g. the straw-plaiting of the county last named). It is lowest, naturally, in the mining districts, as Glamorgan, Monmouth, Durham, Northumberland; but an exception may be noted in the case of Cornwall, where a high proportion of females is attributed to the emigration of miners consequent upon the relative decrease in importance of the tin-mines. In 1901 the proportion of females to males in urban districts was 1086 to 1000, and in rural districts 1011 to 1000.

Urban Districts of England and Wales with Population exceeding 80,000 (1901).

The proportion of married adults (aged twenty and upwards) was found to decrease from 1881 to 1901, being 630 per thousand