205,825,000 178 MONGOLIAN SEMITIC OR TURANIAN ASIA 17,212,680 795 591,000 46'2 NEGRO... 88'3 POLAR REGIONS.. 1,730 000 82,000 HOTTENTOT AND BUSH POLYNESIAN NORTH AMERICA. By A. J. MUNDY, Secretary of the Census. ON a portion of the land which was formerly the site of Millbank Prison, and immediately behind the National Gallery of British Art, familiarly known as the "Tate Gallery," stand some spacious corrugated iron buildings which serve as the "Census Office," most of them having been used for the same purpose ten years ago, when they occupied a position in Charles Street, Whitehall. In these buildings nearly 200 clerks (including 75 lady clerks) are daily engaged in tabulating the Census returns, and in classifying the population by sex, age, conjugal condition, occupation, birth-place, &c.; and the various processes will absorb the time of this considerable body of clerks for many months to come. The work is under the direction of the Registrar-General, assisted by supervisors drawn from the staff of the General Register Office at Somerset House; the Census returns themselves having been collected by enumerators acting under the Registrars of Births and Deaths, and their Supe, intendents, scattered over the whole of England and Wales. The Census in Scotland and in Ireland was in the hands of the respective RegistrarsGeneral of those parts of the United Kingdom. The first Census was taken in 1801, when the population of England and Wales was ascertained to be 8,892,536; and now, after the lapse of 100 years, it stands at 32,526,075, so that the number of inhabitants has been nearly quadrupled in that interval. The rates of increase in the several decennia have not, of course, been uniform; the highest rate was 18'06 per cent. in the period between 1811 and 1821, and the lowest 11'65 per cent. in that between 1881 and 1891; there were fluctuating rates between these two periods, and the rate rose in the decennium preceding 1901 to 12'17 per cent. The higher rate of increase in the last period is remarkable in that the "natural increase," as it is termed-viz., the excess of births over deaths-was lower than in any decennium since 1851. So far as can be gathered from the emigration returns, this result is mainly due to a reduction in the number of emigrants, rather than to an increase in the number of immigrants. Turning to the future, the population of England and Wales in 1911, assuming that it will increase at the same rate as in the last ten years, may be estimated at 36,600,000, and it would reach double the present figure in about 60 years. THE SEXES.-The 324 millions of inhabitants enumerated on 1st April, 1901, included by no means an equal number of both sexes, as is shown above, the females outnumbering the males by more than a million. The excess of females becomes more apparent every Census, and their proportion to 100 males has steadily increased from 104'2 in 1851 to 106'9 in 1901. One obvious reason of the excess of females is the absence from this country of large numbers of the Army, Navy, and Merchant Service, and this would be especially the case as regards the Army at the time of the recent Census, when so many of its members were in South Africa. FAMILIES.-The Census tables distinguish the number of separate families, corresponding, in fact, with the number of separate schedules collected. Inasmuch, however, as a family may consist of a single lodger; of a large number of scholars, teachers, and servants in a school; of hundreds of shop assistants in a large commercial establishment; or of other communities in smaller or larger numbers, the statement that there were over seven millions of separate families does not in the abstract impress the mind with any very distinct significance. Comparing the number of families, however, with that recorded at the Census of 1891; there is an increase of more than 900,000, or nearly 15 per cent.; and, as the entire population increased at little more than 12 per cent., it is evident that some causes have been at work to produce this effect. The average number of persons to a family has fallen from 4'73 in 1891 to 461 in 1901, agreeing with the proportion in 1881; and it is suggested in the Preliminary Census Report that this may be partly due to a diminished birth-rate. HOUSES.-It is noteworthy, too, that the number of inhabited houses has grown faster than the population-viz., at the rate of 15 per cent.; while the house accommodation in reserve, represented by uninhabited houses and houses in course of construction, has largely increased. It is doubtful, however, what proportion of the houses described as uninhabited are in fact dwelling-houses in the ordinary sense of the term. The average number of persons to an inhabited house was 5'19, the proportion in the three preceding Censuses having been 5'33, 5'38, and 5 32. In estimating the significance of this reduced average, it should be borne in mind that a cottage of two or three rooms, a block of industrial dwellings containing hundreds of tenements, and a dwelling of intermediate size rank equally as a house in the Census returns, and thus any variation in the size of new houses or of rebuilt houses would have considerable effect on the proportion of persons to a house; still, it may be hoped that there has been some abatement of overcrowding in dwelling-houses. ADMINISTRATIVE AREAS.-The figures quoted above relate to the whole of England and Wales, but the Census authorities have to deal with the multitudinous areas into which the country is divided for various purposes, the boundaries of these areas having been devised from time to time with very little regard for uniformity. Thus there is the County as ordinarily understood and may be designated the Ancient or Geographical County, and the Parliamentary areas are divisions of this kind of County; the Poor Law or Registration County, which in most cases differs more or less from the Ancient County, and is an aggregation of Poor Law Unions or Registration Districts; and the latest description of County-the Administrative County-which frequently differs from both the foregoing. There are Municipal Boroughs which are County Boroughs and those which are not, and Parliamentary Boroughs which are by no means always co-extensive with Municipal Boroughs. Besides, there are Petty Sessional Divisions, Urban and Rural Districts (sanitary areas), Civil or Poor Law Parishes, and Ecclesiastical Parishes, which have to be taken account of in the Census Report. Many of these areas having undergone change in the course of the last ten years, there need be little wonder that in a considerable proportion of cases the returns are erroneous in the first instance, and much vigilance is required at the Census Office to detect inaccuracies in the local returns for these. ANCIENT COUNTIES.-The Ancient or Geographical Counties differ enormously both as regards area and population. The LARGEST COUNTIES are-- 1,768,279 acres. 1,693,547 1,667,097 Lincolnshire Devonshire. In eight Counties there was an actual decrease of population in the decennium 1891-1901, the decrease in Montgomeryshire reaching 5'4 per cent., in Rutlandshire 4'6 per cent., and in Cardiganshire 3'8 per cent. In the other Counties the increase of population varied from less than 1 per cent. in Huntingdonshire, Cornwall, Cumberland, and Cambridgeshire, to 18'3 per cent. in Kent, 19'1 per cent. in Northumberland, 25'1 per cent. in Glamorganshire, and 38'2 in Essex. The Counties showing the highest rates of increase are, as a general rule, those which either include part of London or adjoin it; those in which mining is the principal industry; or those which are distinctly manufacturing Counties; while it is in the mainly agricultural Counties in which the lowest rates of increase or actual rates of decrease are to be found. ADMINISTRATIVE COUNTIES.-The Administrative Counties have the same names as the Ancient Counties, except that Lincolnshire is divided into three distinct Counties (Holland, Kesteven, and Lindsey), Suffolk into two (Eastern and Western), and Sussex into two (Eastern and Western); and the Isle of Ely is separate from Cambridgeshire, the Soke of Peterborough from Northamptonshire, and the Isle of Wight from the County of Southampton. The County Boroughs are also for most purposes independent of the Counties in which they are locally situated. COUNTY BOROUGHS AND OTHER TOWNS.-Of the County Boroughs, Liverpool has the largest population (684,947), the increase in the last ten years having been at the rate of 8.8 per cent.; Manchester stands next with a population of 543,969 (increase 7'6); and then follow Birmingham (522,182), Leeds (428,953), Sheffield (380,717), Bristol (328,842), Bradford (279,809), and West Ham (267,308), the rates of increase in these Boroughs being 9'2, 16'7, 17'4, 137,5 3, 30*5. The most remarkable instances of high rates of increase in towns are 193'4 per cent. in East Ham, 105'3 in Walthamstow, and 1018 in King's Notton and Northfield; other extremely high rates being 874 in Willesden, 618 in Hornsey, 61'6 in Handsworth (Staffs), 612 in Wallasey, 56'7 in Leyton, and 511 in Smethwick. It will be seen that these exceptional rates of increase are in places adjacent to London or some other large centre from which the population has overflown into these suburban places. In the largest towns, including London, the population increased at an average rate below that in the whole of England and Wales, presumably because, in the circumscribed areas constituting these towns, either there was not sufficient space for the erection of new houses, or because many of the inhabitants migrated into the suburbs in consequence of dwelling-houses being converted into shops or warehouses. Excluding the largest towns, however, the more populous the towns the higher was usually the rate of increase. Thus, in towns having populations between 100,000 and 250,000 the average rate of increase was 17'7 per cent., in those with populations between 50,000 and 100,000 it was 23'1 per cent., in towns with populations between 20,000 and 50,000 it was 20 ̊4 per cent., and in towns with populations between 10,000 and 20,000 it was 18 4 per cent. LONDON. In London the population increased at the rate of 73 per cent., against 17'4 and 10'4 per cent. in the two preceding decennia. While the population within the limits of the Administrative County of London, however, increased at so reduced a rate, it grew at the rate of 45'5 per cent. in the belt of suburbs outside that area but included in the Metropolitan Police District. As the rate of growth in these suburbs had been 508, 505, and 49'5 in the three preceding decennia, it is probable that the overflow of population from "Inner London" is extending to even a wider area. The Metropolis is the only area for which an official Census was taken midway between 1891 and 1901, this being done in accordance with the provisions of the London (Equalisation of Rates) Act, 1894. This intermediate Census enables us to compare the growth of population in London during the five years 1891-6 with that in the following five years, 1896-1901, and the result is very remarkable; for of the total increase per cent. of 7'3 in the decennium 1891-1901, 4'8 per cent. accrued in the first quinquennium, and only 2'5 per cent. in the second. Thus it would appear that the rate of growth in the ten years preceding 1891 (10'4 per cent.) was nearly maintained up to 1896, if indeed it was not exceeded for part of that period. In various parts of "Inner London" the rate of increase of population was very considerable, being 42'3 per cent. in Lewisham, 32'0 in Fulham, 312 in Wandsworth, 22'1 in Woolwich, and 2013 in Hampstead; in none of these, however, except Lewisham, was the rate so high in the last ten years as in the preceding decennial period. In Fulham the growth had been 74'0 per cent. in the ten years 1871-81, falling to 64'5 and 320 in the following decennia. In the most central districts the resident population continued to decline, notably in the City of London Union and in the Strand Union; in the former the rate of decrease in the several decennia since 1861 has been successively 330 per cent., 32'3, 255, and 282, the population in 1901 not exceeding 27,639. By the London Government Act of 1899, London |