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12
The population assigned to the District n Table III. has
been calculated on the number of assessments in 1887 as compared
with 1881, with oertain other compensations as previously
mentioned. The death-rate has been calculated on a population
estimated at 226,000, with 3,751 deaths, which latter, as mentioned
in the footnote, has been arrived at by the help of the
returns supplied to the Board, and obtained from Somerset
House. These returns are of great value, otherwise the deaths
in extraneous hospitals and institutions must have been calculated
from the totals for all London, and therefore of doubtful
value. The deaths include all registered from the 1st of Jan.
to the 31st of December inclusive, but the births are for 52
weeks, and cannot be obtained otherwise than in weekly numbers.
It will be noticed that the density of population is steadily increasing,
having been only 40.7 persons to an acre in 1877
against 55.3 in 1887. Now, as increased density of population
is an important factor in the death-rate, it is very satisfactory
that the death-rate, as shown in Table IV., has been steadily
diminishing since 1881, until it has reached the lowest point
attained since my appointment in 1856, instead of having considerably
increased, as might have been expected, with the increased
density of population. Twenty years ago—i.e., in 1867
—the density of population was only 27.3 persons per acre, or
less than half that existing at the present time, and the deathrate
was 20.6 against 16.6 for 1887, a most astonishing difference,
as there was not a larger proportion of deaths from zymotic
diseases in 1867 than in 1887. The table also shows that the
number of marriages is absolutely fewer than in 1877, and that
the number of births has not increased in proportion to the
population during these eleven years.