View report page

68
POPULATION, INHABITED HOUSES, &c.
The population of Kensington, estimated to the middle of the
year was, in round numbers, 172,000 (= 78'5 per acre) ; males,
69,000, and females 103,000 ; excess of females, 34,000. The
population of the Town sub-district was, approximately, 127,200,
and that of the Brompton sub-district 44,800. The natural increase
during the year, represented by the excess of births over deaths
registered, was 1,264 : an estimated further increase of 732
represents the excess of immigration over emigration; total
increase, 2,000. It is always difficult to estimate with accuracy
the number of persons living in a large and populous place still,
like Kensington, in the process of growth. The best available
test, perhaps, is the number of inhabited houses : if these show
an increase, an increase in the number of people may be inferred,
and vice versa. In July, 1885, there was some 21,420 occupied
and rated premises, an increase of 130 as compared with July,
1884. Estimating 8 persons to a house, this number of houses
would give a population of 171,360. In places having a stationary
population, e.g., parishes which have no available building land,
and which are not undergoing obvious depopulation, as by houses
occupied by the poor coming down to make room for mansions,
warehouses, &c., the birth-rate may serve as a guide in estimating
a population. But this test is of little practical avail in a place
like Kensington, where, as we shall see that, with a constantly
increasing population, not merely the birth-rate, but the absolute
number of births also, has declined considerably of late years,
fewer children having been born in 1885 than in 1872, when the
population was less by 44,000. The most remarkable feature,
however, in connection with the population of Kensington, one,
moreover, which, to a large extent, accounts for the small and
diminishing birth-rate, is the inordinate excess of females. It was
thought surprising when the Census of 1871 revealed a majority
of 22,000 females f the majority now exceeds 34,000. Females
are in excess in the population generally; in London the excess
is about 13 per cent., in Kensington it is 50 per cent.