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CENSUS, 1961
In modern times, exact information regarding the population
not only becomes more urgent but pressure for the inclusion of
new questions becomes greater; the need, therefore, for a periodical
census grows rather than diminishes. Although the full list of
questions for 1961 is larger than for 1951 the introduction of
sampling methods meant that 9 out of 10 people were asked for less
information than in any previous census this century.
The 16th Census of the population of England and Wales was
taken on the 23rd April, 1961. There is, of necessity, an interval
of some 3 years or so before a complete census picture can be
presented and in order to meet the more urgent needs, a Preliminary
Report has been issued which relates to numbers only, by sex, of
the population and the numbers of private dwellings and households
for local authorities' areas. Previous experience has shown
that the final figures are unlikely to differ materially from these
provisional figures.
In this preliminary Report, the population of Greenwich is
given as 85,585, comprising 41,477 males and 44.108 females, which
shows a decrease of 4,261 (4.7%) from the 1951 Census and a fall
of no less than 15,339 since 1931. The excess of females over
males is 2,631 a figure which compares with 2,264 for 1951 and
1,828 for 1931 and, furthermore, the female content of the
Borough's population has risen from 50.9% in 1931 and 51.3% in
1951 to 51.5% for the current Census. Compared with the London
figure of 1,096, the sex ratio in Greenwich, i.e., the number of
females per 1,000 males was 1,063, a rise of 11 over that for 1951.
The Report also indicated a 17.3% rise in the number of
private dwellings from 21,348 in 1951 to 25,048 in 1961, and
private households increased by 1.6% from 26,397 to 26,813
respectively.