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The Registrar General's figures relating to population
and deaths differ in some instances from those compiled from
local information. Where classification, e.g. on ward basis,
as between age groups, etc. has been attempted in this report,
it is necessarily based on local information. These tables may
in the aggregate differ from the totals given by the Registrar
General.
POPULATION.
The Registrar General's estimate of the mid-year
resident population is 68,980. This is 3,450 higher than his
estimate for 1937.
My own estimate, computed from local knowledge is
72,850.
More than 1,800 new dwellings were erected in the year
June 1937 to June 1938 and at three persons per house only
would add 5,400 to the population. With regard to the population
of the existing dwellings, it is probable that the density
per house has not decreased although it is recognised that the
general experience in the country as a whole is the reverse.
In support of this it should be observed that Merton and
Morden had the youngest population of any district in Surrey
at the census of 1931 and its inhabitants are to a very great
extent young adults of the reproductive age groups. Moreover,
the relief of overcrowding has been a negligible factor
affecting population density as the amount of decrowding
which has been effected since 1936 involved less than 1% of
the families in the district. The young age group composition
of the population is supported by the fact that although the
Registrar General has allowed for an increase of only 3.6%
in his estimate of the population, the live births increased by
more than 20%.
In the section of this report dealing with housing, the
results of a recent survey of seven complete streets on the St.
Helier Estate are given. These show that during the last four
years the number of individuals in the 347 houses surveyed
has changed by less than 1%.
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