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6
POPULATION.
As yearly vital statistics take for their basis the
numbers of the population actually existent, it is of the
utmost importance that a correct estimate of the increase
of the population since the last census should be
formed for each year intervening between the two
periods ; such estimate must take into account not only
the growth of the population by the excess of the births
over the deaths, but also the fluctuation produced by
emigration and immigration.
On the Continent, where the increase of the population
is nothing like so rapid as in this country, the
census is taken every five years; but in England, unfortunately,
this troublesome, though very necessary
enumeration is made only once in ten years; the last
occasion upon which this was done was March, 1871.
The actual density of the population is continually
increasing. A great deal of new building is going on
in the outskirts of London, but in this district, as
nearly all the available ground is covered, building
really means rebuilding so as to house greater numbers
than before.
By the operations of the Metropolitan Board of
Works, the Industrial Dwellings Company, and the
owners of the Wilmot Square Estate, considerable
spaces of ground, formerly covered with dwellings, in
many instances each having a considerable space of
garden ground, have been cleared away, and the vacant
land is, or will be soon, occupied with huge