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5
1913
assume that at least 1,200 families removed into Islington during 1913,
and that they represented a population of some 5,000 or 6,000 persons. It is,
he thinks, difficult to estimate the number of human beings who migrate
during the year, but from what knowledge we possess, they do not, by a long
way, equal the number entering the borough.
The census returns for 1901 and 1911 show that the number of families
living in Islington were respectively 79,129 and 79,902; that is, with a less
population there is a greater number of families, which can be accounted
for by the fact that houses are now let out and converted into flats, and that
the families occupying these hereditaments consist mainly of married couples
without children or single occupiers.
Taking the number of families, in round numbers, as 80,000, and the
inhabited houses as 40,000, and allowing 4.098 persons, the number ascertained
at the census, to each family, he arrives at the following estimated
population:—
Empty houses, Lady Day, 1911 2,396
1914 1,458
Decrease 938
Of this 938 decrease he assumes that at least 600 houses contain two
families, and allowing 4,098 persons to each family, he gets 4,917 persons.
Population 1911 327,403
Estimated increase 4,917
332,320
which is his estimate of the population at Lady Day, 1914.
These figures of Mr. Findlater are worthy of consideration, especially as
they are borne out by the observations of the sanitary inspectors, who
constantly report on the increasing difficulty that people, especially the
working classes, meet with in their endeavours to obtain rooms.
This incertitude as to the size of population of the most populous metropolitan
borough, makes it most necessary that a numerical census of the
population should be taken at least quinquenially of the County of London.