View report page

169
POPULATION.
The war has made it impossible to adhere to the methods of
estimation of local and national populations hitherto in use. Men
of military age have been largely drafted to military training centres
or sent abroad with the Army, and the remainder of the male adult
population, as well as, to a lesser extent, the female population,
has migrated on an unprecedented scale into areas other than those
in which it was enumerated at the last Census.
In this Report the rates are based on the estimated civil
population for the middle of the year 1915, and the figure amounts
to 49,776.
The estimated population for each of the Sub-districts is as
follows:—
The Northern Division of the Borough (lying North of the
middle line of Church Street) has a population of about 16,755;
and in the Southern Division the population is approximately
33,021.
The natural increase of population by excess of births over
deaths during the year amounted to 377, as against 193 in the preceding
year.
Number of people to the acre.— The area of the Borough
amounts to 863 acres, and this houses about 58 people to the acre.
BIRTHS.
During the year 1916 there were 1,002 births, viz.:—515 males
and 487 females. The birth-rate per 1,000 per annum was therefore
20.1, as against 18.4 for the preceding year. The births in
the Northern Division of the Borough numbered 244, and the
birth-rate was 14.6; while those in the Southern Division were
758, and the birth-rate was 23.0.