View report page

46
serious attempt to assess the proportion of overseas immigrants
in the Greenwich community must be fraught with difficulties.
However, if the previous 10% sample Census of 1966 be considered
reasonably accurate then the number of residents falling
within this category is not likely to be less than 11,300, some
5.2% of the Borough's total population. Credence for such a
contention is to be found in the returns concerning immigrant
schoolchildren receiving full-time education in Greenwich schools.
Immigrant Schoolchildren—In the I.L.E.A. area, at the beginning
of 1972, true immigrant children (i.e. those born to parents whose
countries of origin were abroad but excluding those of mixed
immigrant and non-immigrant parentage and those children from
Ireland) receiving full-time education in primary and secondary
schools, amounted to 69,655 equivalent to 17.6% of the total
school population.
Of all the Inner London Boroughs, Greenwich had the lowest
percentage of such schoolchildren. Numbering 2,284, immigrant
children formed 5.93% of the total school roll at the end of 1971,
a figure slightly in excess of that previously estimated. If, to this
total, is added those attending "special" schools the percentage
rises to 6.15. By the end of 1972 it is anticipated that immigrant
schoolchildren will number approximately 2,800 forming almost
7% of the total school population.
Under the Local Government Act, 1966, a person of foreign
origin with 10 years standing or less as an inhabitant, or a child
of such parents, is termed an immigrant. As almost a decade has
elapsed since the introduction of the Commonwealth Immigrants
Act, 1962, it follows that, after the end of the current year, the
number of schoolchildren classified as immigrants will even out
and subsequently begin to decline.
Expectation of Life—From 1841, when the expectation of life
at birth was 40 years for males and 42 for females, there was a
gradual but persistent rise in both these figures until 1954, but
since that year the expectation of life at birth has scarcely changed
and now stands at 68.8 years for males and 75.1 for females.
Sex-wise there is a substantial disparity in those persons reaching
the older age groups. Although some 82.3% of all females can
be expected to reach the age of 65 years only 70.1% of males are
likely to succeed.
COMPOSITION OF POPULATION
(a) Sex Ratio—Taking preliminary figures of the 1971 Census
as a basis, it is estimated that the total population of Greenwich,