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3 [1909
REPORT
OF THE
Medical Officer of Health
FOR THE YEAR 1909.
POPULATIONS, AREAS AND DENSITIES OF THE
REGISTRATION DISTRICTS AND WARDS, AND OF THE
BOROUGH.
Population of the Borough.—The size of population of a town is the
most important factor in the calculation of the health statistics of any community,
for if the estimate of its size be incorrect, it follows that all the
computations made upon it are in error, which of course will vary according to the
extent of the miscalculation. Nearly nine years have elapsed since the last
numbering of the people of the United Kingdom took place; and therefore,
there is a possibility, indeed almost a certainty, in some places, that their estimated
populations are incorrect. Last year it was indicated that the estimated
population of this Borough was probably overstated, because the Registrar
General had " relied on the number of the inhabitants increasing since 1901 in the
same geometrical ratio as in the decade 1891-1900." It was also pointed out,
when the censal periods were examined, that for a long while, which is to
say since 1851, the percentage rates of increase of the population of Islington
had been declining, so that it was hardly to be expected that the rate
of increase between 1901 and 1908 had been maintained. These remarks are
even more applicable now that another twelve months have elapsed. In the
figures given below it will be perceived that, whereas the increase between 1841
and 1851 represented a percentum increase of 70*7, between 1891 and 1901 it was
only 4-9. It is probable that even this small increase has not been maintained,
and, therefore that the population has been somewhat over-estimated. Fortunately,
the error can only be very small, and, as was pointed out in the last
Annual Report, assuming that the increase of population is not as much as that
with which the Borough is credited, it will affect the birth, death, and marriage
rates to only a very small extent. The cure for this uncertainty is a quin-
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