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48
it has been assumed for the purpose of comparison that overcrowding
exists if there are more than two persons per room, but obviously this is
not a very reliable test as no regard is paid to the size of a room. The
census figures show that there has been a reduction in Westminster in
the number of persons so living as tested by this method.
Tenement.
No. of Tenements.
Persons 1921.
1901.
1911.
1921.
Number.
Average per
Tenement.
1 room 1,599 869 492 1,671 3.4
2 rooms 1,846 1,262 869 3,964 4.5
3 rooms 729 575 442 3,412 7.7
4 rooms 172 154 107 1,045 9.7
Total 4,346 2,860 1,910 10,092 —

Each decade has shown a marked improvement in the amount of overcrowding.
Since 1891 the reduction in the number of 1.4 roomed tenements
is about 33 per cent., and the reduction in "overcrowding" 74
per cent.
Including dwellings of more than 4 rooms, the population living more
than 2 in a room was 11,364 in 1921, compared with 16,596 in 1911,
10.1 as compared with 12.9 per cent, of the total private family population.
The proportion of persons more than 2 in a room in dwellings
over 4 rooms is evidently larger than it was in 1911. These results are
partly due to the reduction in the average size of families, for as the
Registrar.General points out the re.grouping of the population into
smaller family units has been accompanied by a reallocation of the
available rooms. In other words, a large proportion of the population
have become qualified for the housing .advantages enjoyed by small
families, and have thus absorbed out of the available pool of rooms
a larger share than previously fell to the lot of families of the same
size, the share making a reduction of 16,292 since 1911, as the reduction
in the total population was 18,683, the difference of 2,391 indicates