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8
was a far larger amount of building and consequent immigration
into the parish than there has been during the past 3 years. I
have, moreover, consulted the rate-rooks in order to arrive at as
close an estimate of the population as possible, and these bear out
my surmise; I find that the number of occupied houses in the
parish during June—July last was 4,973, and by applying factors
varying from 5'5 to 7'5 (according to the class of property), as
representing the number of inhabitants to each house, I thus
estimate the population at 32,609; then by adding at the rate of
one individual to each of the 299 empty houses (in order to account
for caretakers and their families), I estimate the population as
32,908, which will also include the few parishioners who are in
public institutions within the parish. This estimation falls 1,264
short of the estimation based upon an assumed increase at the rate
which obtained between 1881 and 1891, and I believe it to be far
nearer the actual truth than the latter. In any event it is better,
since our estimated population is a result arrived at largely by conjecture
by reason of the long period that intervenes between two
censuses,* that any error should be on the side of under-estimation
rather than of over-estimation, for in the latter event our vital
statistics would appear to be more favourable than they actually
are. With the figures of 32,908, I think it may be confidently
maintained that the death-rates of Stoke Newington, favourable as
they are, are not reduced by reason of any over-estimation of our
population.
For the purposes of vital statistics the parish is best divided
into a Northern and a Southern Division—the boundary line
between the two being a line drawn through the middle of Church
Street. In the Northern Division the population is estimated as
approximately 12,189, and that of the Southern Division as 20,719.
I believe this estimation, which I have taken some trouble to arrive
at, is sufficiently close to serve as a just basis for comparison
between the death-rates of the two divisions.
* A simple population enumeration of London and other large cities once in every
5 years, instead of once in every 10, would be of great value in vital returns.