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18
POPULATION.
The estimated population to Midsummer, 1907, is 144,376.
This is estimated on the assumption that the average number of
persons per occupied house has remained constant for houses existing
at the census (1901), the number of persons occupying houses built
since 1901 being ascertained by means of a special census taken by the
Council. There is some reason to believe that this method slightly
under-estimates the population. In a new district such as Willesden
the number of persons per house tends to increase with the age of the
house. Thus in the houses recently built it is found that the average
number of persons per house is fewer (6.57 per house as compared
with 7.16 per house) than that found at the census for the whole
district. It appears that recently-erected houses are preferred by
nowly-married couples, and so it is that after a few years there is
an increased number of persons in houses which have been thus
occupied. Another fact tending to raise the average number of persons
per house in older houses is the adaptation of houses originally built
for one family to tenement dwellings accommodating two or more
families. It is probable therefore that a more correct estimate of the
population would be based on the assumption that the average
number of persons per house remained constant for all houses—new
and old together—with that ascertained at the census, since the
census datum is an expression of the outcome of the two tendencies,
namely of old houses to exceed the average, and of new houses to
fall below the mean number of persons per house, ascertained at the
end of an intercensal period.
The population of Willesden on this assumption was 146,107 at
Midsummer. For calculating rates, however, the lower estimate has