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According to tlie above figures the number of inhabited houses and the population have
markedly increased since 1851; the largest rate of increase taking place chiefly between 18G1
and 1881.
During the period 1881-91, the rate of increase, both as regards houses and persons,
diminished considerably, and during the last decennium, the rate of increase diminished still
further.
During the period from 1851, the average number of persons to each inhabited house
has been slowly increasing. The figures of the last census give an average of 7'4 persons to each
house. In London in 1901, the corresponding number was 7.9.
In the census reports for 1891 and 1901, details are given of the population living in each
class of tenement containing less than five rooms per tenement, and tenements are described as
being: overcrowded when the number of occupants is greater than two persons per room.

It will be seen that there has been in Hammersmith a diminution in the percentage of
the population living under a condition of overcrowding in one, two and three room tenements
and a slight increase in the case of four-room tenements. In London, where the
proportion of the population overcrowded is greater at both periods than in Hammersmith, a
similar change has also taken place, except as regards the four-room tenements in which the
overcrowding was slightly less at the last census. The figures for the adjoining districts are also
given.
The population of Hammersmith is made up of persons engaged in commercial occupations,
many of whom, no doubt, reside in the district owing to its accessibility to the central parts of
London, of persons engaged in professional occupations and their subordinate services, of shopkeepers,
and of persons of the working class. In the census report of 1901, tables are given as to
the occupations of the population in each sanitary district of London. From the table relating to
Hammersmith, so far as it is possible to make out, it appears that rather more than half the total
number of males of 10 years of age and upwards, and who are occupied, may be included as
artisans or persons of the working class. This table also gives particulars as to the number of
females, of the same age as above, who are engaged in occupations. About one-third of the total
number of 10 years of age and upwards is so engaged, namely, 16,328 out of a total of 47,958
females. About one-fourth of these is classified under the heading domestic indoor servants,
while about another fourth is stated to be engaged in work connected with the making of
articles of dress and in laundry work. The remainder is engaged in various occupations.
Indication as to the character of the population of a district may be obtained from
the number of domestic servants employed. A table in the census report gives the proportion per
cent, of domestic indoor servants to the number of families or separate occupiers in London as a
whole and in each of the different sanitary districts. In Hammersmith the proportion is 19.3,
whilst for London generally it is 24.5, the range being from 5.7 in Shoreditch to 81.4 in Hampstead.
In the districts of Fulham and Kensington, which adjoin Hammersmith, the proportions
are 18.6 and 80 0 per cent, respectively. The proportions in Kensington and Hampstead are
considerably in excess of those in other districts of London, the next highest being 65.8 per cent,
in the case of Westminster and 55.2 per cent, in Chelsea.