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6
certain definite migrational trends which affect the distribution of the
population. At the end of last century there was a general depopulation
of rural areas, with a corresponding increase of all urban populations.
Between 1901 and 1921 a balance appeared to have been established,
and urban increases were simply the result of the natural increase of
population in the towns themselves. In the last decennium, however,
a new trend has become apparent. There is an increasing migration of
population from the North and the Midlands to the South, and to the
South-East and London in particular. This trend is distinct from certain
marked local migrations from particularly distressed areas, and seems
to indicate a new localisation of industrial centres. The result is a great
increase in the population and the extent of Greater London.
The tendencies mentioned must of course have an effect on the
situation in Westminster, but the fact that the population of the City
is falling shows that there are other more local factors which have an
even greater effect. Of these, the fact that the birth-rate has fallen
below the death-rate is certainly one, but this is not so far the primary
factor, for of the percentage decrease of 8.5 of the population only 0.8
is due to excess of deaths over births, and the remaining 7.7 is attributable
to migration. This migration is due to the process of decentralisation
which is inevitable in all expanding towns, drawing workers to
new non-central workplaces, and also to the continued invasion of residential
quarters by commercial and administrative undertakings. This
increases the economic importance of the City, but has also had the effect
of raising property values, and so causing an increasing number of the
poorer classes, especially those with large families, to seek places of
residence in outlying localities. The recent influx of population into
London is well shown in the Census figures for certain of the outlying
Metropolitan Boroughs and for practically the whole of the " Outer
Ring " of Greater London, but it has done little to stem the outward
migration from Westminster and certain other Central London boroughs
—although the percentage decrease (8.5) in the City of Westminster is
certainly a little lower than the corresponding figure (11.7) for the
previous decennium. This decentralisation of population is by no means
new, and can be seen in the following population figures for the last
sixty years :—
1871 247,593 1901 183,011
1881 229,573 1911 160,261
1891 198,966 1921 141,578
Greater London as a whole shows a percentage increase in population
of 9.7, three times as great as the increase in the last decennium, and