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Report of the County Medical Officer—General. 63

Study of the detailed tables forming Appendix II. of the Annual Report for 1912 shows that
increase in the percentage of overcrowded tenements of less than five rooms, comparing the years 1901
and 1911, was most marked in Shoreditch (4.10 per cent.), Fulham (2.78 per cent.), Finsbury (2.68 per
cent.) and Camberwell (2.64 per cent.). The largest decreases occurred in Holborn (5.72 per cent.), St.
Marylebone (3.37 per cent.), Westminster (2.92 per cent.), and the City of London (2.78 per cent.). In
the annual report for 1901 attention was directed to the increase of overcrowding in the eastern districts.
On the basis of overcrowding adopted in the tables, this increase is still to be observed except in the
case of Stepney, where the proportion of overcrowded tenements has diminished during the decennium
by 1.48 per cent. It should, however, be noted that the standard of overcrowding used in these tables
is of necessity the arbitrary one used by the Census Office, and the application of the statutory definition
of overcrowding based on a measurement of cubic space per head would undoubtedly give very
different results. For the whole county, moreover, the average number of occupants per room, which
declined between 1891 and 1901, still further declined between 1901 and 1911 for all tenements of less
than five rooms.

(a) Including rooms found overcrowded in 1912.
* These figures relate to the County of London as constituted at the date of the census, but the subsequent
changes in the county area do not seriously affect the value of the figures for the purposes of comparison with the
later years.