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1909]
6

Density of Population —Here we see that the net area of the
Borough, on which the people actually live, is 2,800 acres. The number of
persons living on each acre, or the density of the population, is therefore 125
on the net acreage, and 113 on the gross. These figures are very high, and,
indeed, the crowding of 113 persons on each acre is 74.9 per cent. more than
that which prevails in the County of London, for which the figure is 64.6.
Compared with some of the Metropolitan Boroughs, our density of population
is very excessive. Thus in Woolwich, Lewisham, and Greenwich it ranges
from 16.1 persons per acre to 28.8; in Wandsworth, Hampstead, and Hammersmith,
from 32.6 to 55.0; in Stoke Newington, Camberwell, and Westminster,
from 631 to 67.5; in Hackney, Poplar, Deptford, Lambeth, from 72.2 to 79.4;
in Kensington, Bermondsey, St. Marylebone, Battersea and St. Pancras, from
80.2 to 88.1; in Fulham, Paddington, Islington and Chelsea, from 103.5 to
114.0; in Holborn it is 132.8, and finally in Finsbury, Bethnal Green, Shoreditch,
Stepney and Southwark it ranges from 161.8 to 186.6.
A study of Table V. will discover the effect of these figures on the deathrates,
which are given in Column 4; where it will be noticed that practically
as the density increases, so also does the death-rate, although, of course, not
quite evenly. It could not be otherwise, for just as crowded homes are invariably
more unhealthy than those that are not, so also it is with communities or
towns. This truth is well recognised, and consequently we find movements on
foot to build cities in which the houses will be surrounded by ample air space,
which is utilized at once for health purposes and gardening, and these places
are called garden cities. There is little doubt that they will prove themselves
to be, from a health point of view, desirable places to reside in.