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[1011
RE PORT
of the
Medical Officer of Health
FOR THE YEAR 1911,
POPULATIONS, SUB DISTRICTS, AREAS AND DENSITIES,
Population,—The number of the population was ascertained by a
National Census made on the night of April 2nd, 1911, It was the twelfth
decennial enumeration of the English people, As regards Islington, it showed
that for the first time there was no increase in the number of its inhabitants,
that in fact there was a decrease, True, the decrease was small; but,
however small, it is none the less unsatisfactory, For a long while it was
suspected, because the number of unoccupied houses in the borough had increased;
and, indeed, a street which was for long years Islington's glory and its
most busy thoroughfare, both during the day and night, had latterly exhibited
a beggarly array of closed shops, That they will not long remain so is
certain, for there are not wanting signs that they will by-and-by be reoccupied,
although possibly not by businesses of the same high-class as formerly,
but probably by those which will meet the wants of the different class of
people who are now occupying houses in Highbury, Canonbury, and Barnsbury,
which aforetime were owned or rented by " can iage people " and similarly
wealthy folks and good middle-class persons,
The census returns showed that the number of people living in the borough
was 327,403, as compared with 334,991 in 1901, There was, therefore, a
decrease in the population, and for the fiist time, to the extent of 7,588 persons,
or 2-26 per cent,, as compared with the number ascertained at the preceding
census,
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