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7
Population.
This figure being the basis on which most of the statistics
are worked out, it is necessary to attempt to arrive at the most
reliable estimate for the total population and also if possible
to differentiate that population to show where, if any, divergency
occurs as compared with the population of the Country
taken as a whole.
The 1921 figure of 9,127 persons in 1,871 houses represented
the old established community living roughly, 5 persons to a
house. This population now fringes the L.C.C. Housing Estate.
These houses being intended for the relief of overcrowding in
London, selection was made in favour of persons living in
overcrowded circumstances. The transferred population one
would expect therefore to consist of adults aged 25 to 45 and
their children aged 0 to say, 15. It is probable that the children
above that age would have obtained work in London and so
would continue to reside there. As it would be the more
seriously overcrowded that would have first claim, one would
expect, too, that the number of children per house and therefore
the number of occupants of the house, would be greater than
that usually accepted for the Country generally.
No Census has yet been taken of the district, so reliance
has to be placed on figures obtained during routine visits
The average population per house of those infected by
primary cases of Diphtheria (over 100 houses) was 2.4 persons
over 15, and 2.88 persons under 15, or 5.28 altogether. The
corresponding figures for over 200 houses attacked by Scarlet
Fever were 2.47, 2.87 and 5.34. In each case the Estate houses
accounted for some 80% of the total.
In the records of some 2,000 cases visited under the
Notification of Births Act, the corresponding figures were 2.16,
3.3 and 5.4
The presumption therefore is that the average population
per house is well over 5. At the end of June, 1927 the number
of inhabited houses in the district was 10.520. The figure of
50,000 taken as the estimated mid-year population is therefore
seen to be a conservative one, a more accurate estimate being
probably nearer 55,000.