View report page

116
For the county as a whole, with regard to the proportion of
families to structurally separate dwellings, it is shown that while
the number of families has increased by 9.5 per cent, during the
decennium, the growth in the number of occupied dwellings has
been at less than half of this rate, i.e., 4.1 per cent. As a result
the average number of families per occupied dwelling has increased
from 1.51 in 1911 to 1.59 in 1921. At the same time the number
of empty dwellings has decreased from 47,260 to 18,969, a decline
of 28,291. It should be noted, however, that these figures include
both unoccupied dwellings and those merely empty through the
temporary absence of the occupiers.
The excess of 1921 ratio of 1.59 over the 1911 ratio of 1.51
is approximately equivalent to a deficiency of 36,000 dwellings.
This number is small in comparison with the total number of
dwellings (nearly 300,000) which are at present shared by two
or more families each.
Analysing the dwellings occupied by private families according
to the number of rooms contained in them, the table shows that
18 per cent, contained three rooms or less, 27.2 per cent, four to
five rooms, 42.3 per cent, six to eight rooms, and 12.4 per cent,
nine rooms or more. The average number of rooms per structurally
separate dwelling in the county is 5.85.
In the County of London the average size of families has been
reduced from 4.15 persons in 1911 to 3.79 persons in 1921—a drop
of 9 per cent. This reduction is not local, and may be expected to
be disclosed for other parts of England and Wales.
It is pointed out that while the reduction in the size of families
may not abate the demands of individual families for separate
dwellings, it obviously justifies a review of the general position
by reference to the requirements of families in point of accommodation.
It is shown that whereas the average size of families has
dropped by about 9 per cent., the average unit of occupation has
decreased from 3.56 rooms per family in 1911 to 3.38 in 1921, a
decrease of only about 5 per cent., with the consequence that the
average number of occupied rooms per person has improved from
.88 in 1911 to .91 in 1921. Disregarding, therefore, difference in
type of accommodation and size of rooms (on which the census
returns are of course silent), the London population is, on a general
average of rooms per person, less densely housed than in 1911.
Further evidence of improvement is also given by a comparison
of families living under the "overcrowded" condition of two or
more persons per room. The number of private families each living
more than two persons per room was 110,495 (i.e., 16.1 per cent.)
in 1921, compared with 121,591 (i.e., 17.8 per cent.) in 1911. The
population in such families was 683,488 in 1921 and 758,439 in 1911.
Some further examination of the "rooms per person" ratio,
it is noted, is, however, necessary before the general average can