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Section 4.—Rate of Increase of Population.—Births, Immigration and
Emigration.—Another inquiry, whose results are of importance, though somewhat
difficult of accurate application, concerns the rate of increase of the population, the
births, and the immigration and emigration of residents.
At the beginning of the century the population of St. Giles increased from
36,500 to 48,500 in ten years, more rapidly than St. Pancras is now increasing. In
the twenty years, however, preceding 1841, the increase had been very slow, only
2,500, and between 1841 and 1851 there was an actual decrease of 78 persons. This
was doubtless in consequence of the decrease in the number of inhabited houses, of
which there were 259 more in 1841 than 1851.
Those to whom the Metropolis is indebted for the gigantic improvements which
were made in these ten years, will anticipate that proportionate gain has accrued to the
health of St. Giles, in consequence of the alterations. There is one drawback, however,
to be noted. The number of inhabited houses in 1851 fell short of the number
in 1841, by 259; this decrease in house accommodation should have represented a
decrease in population of 2,836 persons; the actual decrease, however, was only 78; it
follows, therefore, that 2,758 persons were added to the already crowded houses, and
hence it has resulted that St. Giles contained, in 1851, more inhabitants to each house
than any of the districts round about it.
The population of St. Giles enumerated at this last census, does not, therefore,
appear capable of further increase, and it may be assumed that the district contained, in
1857, approximately the 54,214 inhabitants of 1851. In order, however, that the
comparison of St. Giles with other districts, may not err on the side unfavorable to St.
Giles, I have assumed its present population at 54,300 persons.
I have examined the births of the district, for two years of which I possess
records. In both these years the birth-rate appears to be very closely the same as in
the Metropolis at large, about 34 births annually to every 1,000 inhabitants; in 1851,
indeed, St. Giles appeared to have a little the advantage of the rest of the town in this
respect. It is to be remembered, however, that in the Lying-in Hospital, in Endell
Street, upwards of 100 births occur annually, and that many of the women there
delivered belong to other districts; making a correction for these, the birth-rate of St.
Giles falls to 32 or 33 per 1,000 residents, which is below the average of the town.
I may here observe, in passing, that St. Giles ought to present a birth-rate
decidedly higher than the average of London, if its marriages showed equal fertility,
as the number of persons married in St. Giles is in excess of the town. It is not clear
whether there may not be an undue number of premature children, who are never
registered as births, or whether the movement of the population can have any effect in
keeping down the birth-rate; but the fact, as it stands, deserves to be put on record, as
it does not coincide with a statement which has obtained a wide belief—that a considerable
mortality among the infants of a family is compensated for by the production
of new children with greater rapidity.
The birth-rate of St. Giles, then, being 34 for every 1,000, and the registered
death-rate being 26 or 27 per 1,000, it is plain that there is a natural annual increase
of nearly 400 persons to the whole number of residents; but the district being incapable
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