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POPULATION.
The population of West Ham as enumerated at the 1931
census was 294,278 persons, of whom 143,714 were males and
150,564 females. The Registrar-General's estimate of the resident
population at the middle of the year was 259,500.
The census population of the area of the present county
borough is given in Table I. for each of the census years since
1801. The table, which also gives the intercensal changes of the
population, will be referred to later. The marks of interrogation
which appear in connection with the figures for the first four
decennial census enumerations are reprinted direct from the
Registrar-General's official census reports for these years. They
probably indicate some difficulty in allocating the residence of
certain persons to the area which now constitutes the county
borough.
The estimated mid-year population of the area for each
year since 1876 is given in Table 11(a). The populations for the
year 1911 and later years are those which are printed officially
in the annual reports of the Registrar-General. For the years
before 1911—that is, before the populations for administrative
areas were given in official reports—the figures are obtained from
local sources, although it is probable that most of these estimates
were approved by the Registrar-General. As there is for certain
diseases an appreciable difference in the mortality of males and
females respectively, I have included in this table my estimate of
the numbers of males and females respectively in the population
at each of these years. These estimates have been made from the
population for each year by the application of the mean of two
factors derived respectively from the sex distribution of the population
in the two adjacent census years. These sex estimates
of the population at each year will be used in future for the calculation
of rates by sexes.
With the exception of the years 1916—1919 inclusive, the
populations shown in Table 11(a) have been used in the calculation
of the rates in the tables in this and the following section. In the
calculation of death rates from all causes and from individual
causes of death for the years 1916—1919 inclusive, special
adjusted populations given by the Registrar-General were used.
These populations, together with my estimate of their distribution
by sexes, are shown in Table 11(b).
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