\ 



A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.' — Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER i, 1921. 



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The Census of 1921. 



UST twelve months ago (Nature, August 26, 



1920, p. 797) we directed attention to the effect 



fof the Census Act of last year in facilitating the 



^^work of the Registrar General and his colleagues 



)n the census, which was then appointed to be 



'made in April of the present year, and to the 



value of the information that the census might 



be expected to afford. Effect was duly given to 



the provisions of the Act by an Order in Council 



made on December 21, 1920, fixing the date 



of the census for April 24; but when that 



day arrived the coal dispute and the strikes 



which were then threatened in tlie railway and 



transport industries gave rise to doubts whether 



NO. 2705, VOL. 108] ,' 



the work could be successfully carried out as 

 intended, and a further Order in Council was 

 obtained fixing it for June 19, when the 

 enumeration accordingly was made. It reflects 

 great credit on the officers responsible for the 

 work that they have been able so soon to publish 

 a preliminary Report (Cd. 1485) containing in 

 adequate detail the broad features that are pre- 

 sented by the figures. We must await the future 

 Reports for much of the information that we 

 referred to in our previous article as desirable, 

 but in the meantime this preliminary Report may 

 be consulted with interest and profit. 



For obvious reasons this Report does not con- 

 tain any particulars relating to Ireland. For 

 Great Britain the total population is given as 

 42,767,530; an increase of 47 per cent, on that 

 of the census of 191 1. The total population of 

 Great Britain at the census of 182 1 was 

 enumerated at 14,091,757, so that the population 

 appears to have multiplied threefold in a hundred 

 years. In the light of this fact it is not unsatis- 

 factory to find that the increase shown by the 

 present census is less in actual number and in 

 percentage than that of any previous intercensal 

 period during the centennium. A continuance of 

 the previous rate of increase would have resulted 

 in over-population. 



The next step in the comparison, that of the 



relative numbers of the sexes, introduces a new 



element. In England and Wales, in 192 1, the 



males are 18,082,220 and the females 19,803,022, 



; 1095 females to 1000 m^s. In 182 1 there were 



B 



