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These projections are based on the assumption that Walthamstow
follows the National trend with an increase of total population of
8% between 1962 and 1972 and by 15.13 per cent between 1962 and 1982
but they may be completely vitiated by the effects of migration whose
profound influence on population structure is shown by the loss of
nearly eleven thousand young adults and four and a half thousand
children between 1951 and 1961 death rates in these groups being
negligible.
During the last 10 years while all these young people had left
the town the numbers over 45 have increased by 3,122. This age
group is less likely to be affected by migration, so that the
prediction of the number of the pensioners is probably fairly
accurate.
While it is impossible to give a realistic forecast for the
number of children there is every indication that both number and
proportion will increase in Walthamstow as elsewhere. The proportion
marrying at all ages is increasing, especially among women between
20 and 24 years and 25 to 29 years, and the expected number of
children per couple has increased from 1.99 for those married in
1940 to 2.5 for those married in 1956.
Irrespective of the total population, therefore, a large increase
in the number of pensioners is certain and a moderate increase in
the number of children, and in family size, is probable, and it
would seem prudent to consider housing schemes which envisage
providing room for children and their grandparents.