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9
PART I.
A. Population.
The resident population of the City of Westminster has been
calculated by the Registrar-General at 172,219 for the year 1907.
At the census, 1901, the number was 183,011. This is arrived at
by a calculation based on the assumption that the rate of decrease
ascertained at the census taken in 1901 as having taken place since
the census taken in 1891 is still continuing. In Westminster, where
improvement schemes on a large scale are in progress, it is obvious
that the risk of error may be considerable. There are, moreover, a
large number of persons resident in Poor Law establishments beyond
the boundaries of the City whose deaths are allocated to the City,
hence these people should be added in as part of the resident
population. To counterbalance this there are many persons in
hospitals and hotels in the City who are only temporary residents,
and in order to be exact these should be excluded.
For the purpose of obtaining approximately exact figures for the
Wards, I have added paupers to the various Wards in the proportion
in which they were found in the Workhouses and Infirmaries at the
time of the census, and deducted a proportion of the persons in
hospitals and hotels, with the result that the figures given in Table I
are arrived at, making a total of 172,900, but without a direct census
it is impossible to ascertain the correct figures. The Registrar-General,
for the purpose of the Equalisation of Rates Act, estimated the population
of the City in another way and makes it to be 172,041, without paupers
in outlying workhouses and infirmaries. This he does by calculating
the number of persons per inhabited house at the time of the census,
and applying such to the number of houses found on the rate books
in May of each year. The City Comptroller has been good enough to
supply me with a copy of the figures sent to the Local Government