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6
Vital Statistics Population and Acreage.
The Registrar-General's method of estimating the population
of a district in the intervals between the census years
is based on the assumption that the same rate of increase or
decrease will hold good as in the previous intercensal period.
The population of Finchley at the census of 1891 was 16,647,
and at the census of 1901, 22,126. Assuming that the same
rate of increase persisted to the middle of the year 1907, the
population would then have amounted to 26,432. But the
rapid development of the District during recent years renders
this method inapplicable, and I have therefore, as on previous
occasions, calculated the population from the number
of houses in occupation, allotting to each the average number
of inhabitants found at the time of the last census. And it
is the figure thus obtained that 1 have made use of throughout
my report. As the rate books are made up at the end
of the first and third quarters, and the population has to be
estimated for the middle of the year, a further source of
error is introduced, but in the absence of a more frequent
census enumeration I know of no method likely to give more
accurate results.