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11
The population of Shoreditch amounted to 83,432 persons in 1841;
it had risen to 109,257 in 1851, having increased at the rate of nearly
3 per cent. per annum, growing by one per cent. faster than the Metropolis.
At the Census of 1861, the population amounted to 129,339
persons, gaining 20,082 persons, a gain in itself equal to the whole population
of a considerable town. The rate of increase was therefore 18.38
per cent. in the interval between the two Censuses, or about 1.7 per cent.
annually. It will thus be seen that Shoreditch has not maintained the
rate of increase of 1841—51; during the last decenniad the district has
even fallen in this respect slightly behind the Metropolis.
The population of Shoreditch (1861) is .046, or about 1 in 22 of the
London popnlation, i.e. Shoreditch multiplied by 22 would about equal
London. These relations of Shoreditch to the Metropolis are useful as
furnishing standards of comparison for all health and mortality-movements.
Thus, we may expect that week by week, month by month, and
year by year, the mortality of Shoreditch, in the aggregate and from
special classes of diseases, shall bear the same proportion to the mortality
of London—i. e. 1 in 22—as is borne by the population. Whenever any
marked variations from this proportion are observed, we shall be supplied
with an indication for enquiry into the special causes,' whether
connected with the ages, proportions of the sexes, or occupations of the
populations, or with local sanitary conditions.
In preceding annual reports, I have assumed that the population of
Shoreditch was increasing after the annual rate of increase which marked
the period between 1841 and 1851. After the latter year, this rate, as
we now see by the recent Census, has not been maintained. I had therefore
arrived at an estimated population which was somewhat in excess of
the actual population. Since it now appears that the tendency of the
district is to increase not only at a lesser annual rate, but also probably
in a diminishing ratio year by year, it will be safer to adopt a very moderate
of increase in forming an estimate of the population in 1862, and
future years. There are causes now in operation, such as the demolition
of old courts and isolated houses, which must largely counteract the tendency
to increase. The vacant building area is already much reduced,
and the time seems approaching when compression or crowding in the
old-inhabited parts reaching its limits, the population in them will remain