FROM 1583 TO 1702. 89 



Wales at 5^ millions, concludes that in 1800 they will amount 

 to 6420,000, and in 1900 to 7,350,000, a calculation which has 

 been far more than verified by facts. He considered that the 

 kingdom contained 39,000,000 acres, an estimate which is 

 1,700,000 more than the fact, but he had no means of arriving 

 at the area of the several counties. He believes that the 

 population would increase annually by about 22,000, were it 

 not for the region included in the bills of mortality where the 

 annual decrease is 2000 persons a year, London requiring at 

 least that immigration in order to keep up its population. 

 The population of what lay within the bills of mortality is 

 530,000, of the cities and market towns 870,000, of the villages 

 4,100,000, so that the county had nearly three-fourths of the 

 population. The tax on marriages gave him the information 

 that the proportion of marriages in the first of these was I in 

 106, in the second i in 128, in the third i in 141. The births 

 in the first, i in 26-5, in the second i in 28-5, in the third i in 

 29-4 ; while the burials in the first are i in 24-1, in the second 

 i in 30-4, in the third i in 34-4. He furthermore concludes 

 that the males to females are in London 10 to 13, in the cities 

 and towns 8 to 9, and in the villages 100 to 99. 



King calculates that the number of persons under 16 years of 

 age is 2,240,000, and of those above 16 at 3,260,000, and of those 

 under 10 years 1,520,000. In London he concludes that 33 

 per cent, of the population is under ten years of age, in the 

 country towns 40 per cent., and in the villages 47 per cent., an 

 estimate which he derived from comparing the births and the 

 burials ; and he is in accordance with what we should expect 

 to find from the insalubrious condition of London. Accord- 

 ing to these figures, then, the death-rate in London was close 

 upon 41-5 per thousand, and that in the country villages a 

 little over 29 per thousand. 



Davenant has printed another exceedingly curious estimate, 



also made by King. It consists of nine columns : the first of 



number of families in different classes and callings, the 



-; of this calculation having no doubt been the poll-taxes ; 



