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101
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 1890, as compared with previous years since
the census of 1881; but probably they were about 21,800 at the
middle of the year. In places with a 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 birth-rate, but
the number of berths also, has largely declined in recent years
(vide Tables I. and II., Appendix). In the absence of information
as to the enumerated population in 1891, it is with much
diffidence, therefore, that I venture to estimate the population at
the middle of the year 1890 at 179,500, an increase of 1500 over
that of 1889, the natural increase during the year, represented by
the excess of births over deaths registered, being 913. The
population then, as estimated, gives a density of nearly 82 per
acre: it comprised, males 72,800, and females 106,700 : that of
the Town sub-district being, approximately, 131,000, and that of
the Brompton sub-district, 48,500. The Registrar-General, I may
add, estimates a much larger population, viz., 200,000, or 20,500
more than the number I have taken, as the basis for 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.