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CENSUS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



CENSUS OP THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



710 



considered doubtful whether, upon a rigid construction, the Census 

 Act rendered it compulsory upon parties to afford information upon 

 these particulars ; and the inquiry was therefore pursued as a purely 

 voluntary investigation." 



^ For obtaining these objects, the local machinery introduced in 

 England and Wales by the Poor Law and Registration Acts was em- 

 ployed, the general direction of the census, under the Secretary of 

 State, being given to the Registrar- General. The 624 Registration Dis- 

 tricts, into which England and Wales was divided by the Registration 

 Act, each having a superintendent-registrar, were subdivided into 2190 

 Bubdistricts, each having a local registrar of births and deaths. These 

 subdistricts were, for the purposes of the census, and under the super- 

 vision of the registrars and superintendent-registrars, again divided 

 into 30,610 enumeration districts, each such district being assigned to 

 one enumerator, who was required to complete his enumeration in one 

 day. In Scotland, where no such local machinery existed, the census 

 was taken through the agency of the sheriffs of counties and chief 

 officers of boroughs ; the working of the act being devolved chiefly on 

 the sheriffs-substitute, "who appointed a fit person, generally the 

 parochial schoolmaster, in each parish to divide it into convenient 

 enumeration districts, and superintend the proceedings of the census 

 therein." The number of enumeration districts formed throughout 

 Scotland, in 1851, was 7873; in the islands of the British seas, 257 

 enumeration districts were similarly formed. Of the mode of taking 

 the census, it will suffice- to say, that blank forms were left at every 

 house and public institution, with minute directions, in order that 

 they might be correctly filled up with the requisite information con- 

 cerning every person who abode in the house or apartment on tliu 

 night of March 30, 1851. These forms were collected by the enume- 

 rators on the 31st of March ; each enumerator being directed to satisfy 

 himself, as far as possible, of the accuracy of the entries, and where 

 inaccurate to eorruct them. 



The vast importance of the method adopted, as a security for the 

 accuracy and precision of the returns, will be best understood by a 

 comparison with the method adopted in taking the Census of the 

 United States in 1850. At that date the territory of the United States 

 comprised an area of 3,300,000 square miles. To number the inha- 

 bitants occupying that vast space the entire staff of superior and sub- 

 ordinate officers employed numbered only 3276 persons, less than 

 one-tenth of the number employed for enumerating the population of 

 England and Wales, a territory of 58,320 square miles, or less than a 

 fifty-sixth of the area of the United States. It is at once evident that 

 the American enumeration could not be made on one day, and accord- 

 ingly we find that though the schedules were directed to be filled up 

 with " reference to" a particular day, the officer did not call at the 

 house, the inmates of which were to be numbered, till some days, 

 weeks, or even months after the tune specified ; when the careless 

 way in which people are accustomed to treat such things being taken 

 into account it is scarcely possible that errors can in very numerous 

 instances be avoided, even as regards the mere number of residents, 

 while in respect of age and other more minute matters, the probability 

 of error is of course largely increased 



As far as provision could be made by the strength and careful 

 appointment of the official staff, and the strictness with which their 

 duties were defined, the arrangements for the British Census of 1851 

 were in all respects admirable, and probably the returns were as accu- 

 rate as under existing circumstances are attainable. It may serve to 

 show the amount of labour which devolved on this army of enume- 

 rators (including Scotland, nearly 39,000 in number), to state that the 

 blank-forms for England and Scotland, issued from the Census Office, 

 amounted in all to nearly 7,000,000, the weight of them being nearly 

 40 tons : the " weight of the schedules, blank enumeration books, and 

 other forms, despatched from the central office, exceeded 52 tons." 

 The schedules, after being duly filled in, were subjected to revision by 

 the registrars and superintendent-registrars before transmission to the 

 Census Office, there to undergo final revision and generalisation. The 

 enumeration of the persons on buard vessels, either in harbour or at 

 MB, waa accomplished by the officers of the Customs, the Admiralty, 

 and the Registrar of British Seamen ; the enumeration of the army by 

 the officers of the various branches, under the direction of the Com- 

 maader-in-Chief. In these, as in other matters, the returns were much 

 more minute and extensive than in any previous census ; while several 

 collateral returns were at the same time obtained, such as of the latest 

 population of the several colonies, the number of British subjects in 

 various foreign states, the number and rank of half-pay officers of the 

 army, navy, and marines, of Chelsea and Greenwich pensioners, of 

 officers employed in the civil service of the crown, &c. 



The household schedules were collected on the 31st of March, and 

 subjected, as mentioned, to revision by the registrars and superintendent 

 registrar*. " By the end of the month of May, these schedules, 

 amounting to about 4,300,000 distinct returns, and the enumeration 

 books 88,000 in number, were received at the central office. The 

 result of the enumeration having been obtained from the summaries 

 forwarded with the returns by the registrars in England and Wales, 

 and the numbers for Scotland also ascertained, a statement of the total 

 population and number of houses was transmitted, on the 7th of June, 

 to the Secretary of State, and at once made public." Having men- 

 tioued the quantity of labour which devolved on the large army 



of enumerators, it is only fair to add, as an evidence of its vast 

 amount, as well as the scrupulous care with which the subsequent 

 proceedings were conducted, that every total and summary throughout 

 the enumerators' returns was subjected to strict and minute examina- 

 tion for the purpose of verification or correction ; such revision alone 

 involving " the examination and totalling of more than 20,000,000 of 

 entries, contained on upwards of 1,250,000 pages of the enumeration 

 books." This revision was entirely preparatory to the great work 

 the classification of facts. 



We proceed now to the Results of the enumeration of the population. 

 Stated in a single sentence, the great result of the enumeration, as 

 given in the census of 1851, is, that Great Britain, without including 

 the islands in the British seas, contains 13 divisions, 84 counties, 

 696 districts", 17,150 parishes or places, 38,483 enumeration districts, 

 3,648,347 houses, 20,816,351 inhabitants, and 57,372,377 acres. 



The Population of Great Britain, including the islands in the British 

 seas, on March 31, 1851, was 20,959,477 ; and the men in the army, 

 navy, and East India Company's service, abroad, on the passage out, or 

 round the coast, belonging to Great Britain, on the same day, was 

 162,490. The total population of Great Britain may therefore be set 

 down at 21,121,967. Of these, 16,921,888 were in England ; 1,005,721 

 in Wales ; 2,888,742 in Scotland ; 143,126 in the Isles of Man, Jersey, 

 Guernsey, Alderney, and other small islands in the British seas ; and 

 162,490 were at sea or serving abroad in the army. 



The Proportion of Males to Females has been preserved with remark- 

 able regularity during the half century. In 1851 the male population 

 of Great Britain was 10,386,048, the female 10,735,919; being an. 

 excess of 349,871 females : the excess of females at home was 512,36'!. 

 The proportion in 1851 was 103,369 females to every 100,000 males ; in 

 1801 it was 103,353 females to 100,000 males. At both periods there 

 were somewhat less than 30 males to 31 females. In 1851 there were 

 20 males at home to 21 females. The excess of births, however, is in 

 the opposite direction. During the thirteen years (1839-1851)in which 

 accurate registers of births have been kept, there have been born 

 3,634,235 males and 3,465,629 females, or about 105 males to every 

 100 females (104,865 to 100,000). The disparity in the sexes at home 

 is greatest in Scotland 110 females to. 100 males; in England and 

 Wales it is only 104 females to 100 males. To what degree the change 

 in the proportions and the subsequent disparity of the numbers in the 

 two sexes is due to emigration, or to a difference in degree of the 

 dangers and diseases to which they are respectively exposed, this is not 

 the place to consider. 



The Increase of Population in the last half-century nearly represents 

 a new nation equal to that which existed in Great Britain at its com- 

 mencement, and that notwithstanding the vast numbers who have 

 "annually left the United Kingdom, settled and multiplied into 

 millions in the United States, in the colonies of North America, of 

 Australia, and of South Africa." The aggregate increase in the fifty 

 years is 93'470 per cent., or at the rate of 1'329 per cent, annually. 

 " The annual increase, however, has varied in each decennial period ; 

 it increased from 1'274 per cent, on the population in 1801-11, to 1'489 

 (nearly 14) in 1811-21, when it was at the ma.rimum; the annual rate 

 of increase in 1821-31 was 1'408 ; in 1831-41 it fell to 1'279; and in 

 1841-51 to 1'186 per cent, annually. The population therefore is 

 increasing, but the rate of increase has declined since 1811-21, when 

 there was little emigration, and the mortality in England was lower 

 than it has ever been before or since, down to the two last decennaries ; 

 when the public health has suffered from epidemics of influenza, 

 cholera, and other diseases, while emigration from the United King- 

 dom has proceeded at an accelerated rate from 274,300 in 1821-31, to 

 718,000 in 1831-41, and 1,693,000 in 1841-51." During the same 

 period the proportion of land to each person has decreased in Great 

 Britain, from 5'4 acres in 1801, to 27 acres in 1851 ; from 4 acres to 

 2 acres in England and Wales. 



If the rate in which the population has increased since 1801 con- 

 tinue to prevail uniformly, the population would double itself in Great 

 Britain every 52J years ; in England and Wales every 51 years. 



The number of Families in Great Britain in 1801 was 2,260,802 ; in 

 1851 it was 4,312,388 ; being an increase of 2,051,586. The families 

 in England and Wales in 1801 were 1,896,723; in 1851 they were 

 3,712,290. In Scotland they were 364,079 in 1801, and 600,098 in 

 1851. The average number of families to a house in Great Britain 

 in 1801 was 1'209, and of persons in a family, 4'645 ; in 1851 there 

 were 1'182 families to a house, and 4'825 persons in a family. In 

 Scotland in 1851 the average of persons in a family was 4 814, or 

 nearly that of the whole island ; but the average of families in a house 

 was somewhat higher 1'621. In Glasgow the number of families to a 

 house is 5 - 4; of persons to a house, 27'5; in Edinburgh the cor- 

 responding numbers are 4'2 and 20'6; in Aberdeen, 3 and 12'3; in 

 Dundee, 3'2 and 157 ; in Perth, 2'8 and 12. In London, on the other 

 hand, the numbers are only about the average of Scotland 174 and 

 77; but in some districts they are as high as 10, 11, and even 12 

 persons to a house. This excess in the northern cities was caused by a 

 real difference in the habits of the people. " The towns and cities of 

 the two northern English counties and of Scotland are built in the 

 continental style ; and the families of the middle classes, as well as the 

 poor, live in large flats, which constitute separate tenements." The 

 term house, in many parts of Scotland, has been usually applied to 



