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72
POPULATION, INHABITED HOUSES, &c.
It is always difficult to estimate with accuracy the number
of persons living in a large and populous place still, like Kensington,
in the process of growth. The best available test, perhaps,
is the number of inhabited houses : if these shew an increase, an
increase in the number of people may be inferred, and vice versa.
I have, however, no reliable information as to the number of
inhabited houses in 1889, as compared with previous years since
the census of 1881. Probably they were about 21,700 at the
middle of the year. In places with stationary population, the
birth-rate may serve as a guide. But this test is of little practical
avail in a parish like Kensington, where it is the case that,,
with a constantly increasing population, not merely the birthrate,
but the absolute number of births also, has constantly
declined in recent years (vide Tables I. and II., Appendix).
Desirous of avoiding the error of overstating the population,
I have assumed, for the purposes of the present report, that there
was a small loss last year by migration outwards, thus adding only
one thousand to the estimated population of 1888, although the
natural increase during the year, represented by the excess of
births over deaths registered, was 1286. The population then,
estimated to the middle of the year, was, in round numbers,
178,000 (=81 per acre); males, 72,000, and females, 106,000 :
that of the Town sub-district being, approximately, 130,000,
and that of the Brompton sub-district, 48,000. The RegistrarGeneral,
however, places the estimated population so high as
196,000, or 18,000 more than-1 have taken as the basis of our
statistics. The most remarkable feature in connection with the
population of Kensington, one, moreover, which, to a large extent,
accounts for the small and diminishing birth-rate, is the
inordinate excess of females. It was thought surprising when
the census of 1871 revealed a majority of 22,000 females ; the
majority now is probably not less than 34,000. Females are
in excess in the population generally; in London the excess
is about 12 or 13 per cent. ; in Kensington it is nearly 50
per cent.