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6
From the facts contained in the foregoing Table,the following
conclusions are to be deduced:—
The population of Paddington was greater in the middle of
the year 1850 than at the time of the Census by at least 8000
souls. The whole of this increase is referable to the SubDistrict
of St. Mary, the population of which has augmented
at the rate of 81.7 per 1000 annually. There have been
added to it by birth during the period in question upwards of
36 per 1000 annually; whereas the average birth-rate of the
whole Metropolis during the same period was 33.3 per 1000.
It is not, however, to this circumstance that the rapid increase
is mainly to be attributed, as the excess of births over deaths
would only account for a very small proportion of it. The
remainder must therefore be the result of immigration, or, in
other words, of the occupation of newly built houses by a
population introduced from other places.
The high birth-rate of this District may. be assigned
to several causes. Its population contains a comparatively
large proportion of families belonging to the middle and lower
classes, from which it results that married persons are relatively
more numerous than in the other division of the Parish. To
this it is to be added that the age of an immigrant, or recently
settled population (from 20 to 30) may be assumed to be such
as to contain a large proportion of newly married couples, and
consequently to be more prolific.
A high birth-rate must obviously materially modify the
composition of a population in respect to age. Its inevitable
result must be to increase the relative number of infants as
compared to that of persons of other ages; and when it is
considered that in infants a rate of mortality prevails which is
immensely more rapid than at the later periods of life, it may
be readily understood that such a constitution of population
must necessarily tend to elevate the general rate of mortality.
Notwithstanding this disadvantage, the death-rate of St. Mary's
District may be favourably compared even with the most
healthy districts of the Metropolis. While the average deathrate
of St. Marylebone, Hampstead, St. Pancras, Islington,
Hackney, is 22.7 per 1000, that of St. Mary's is only 21.2.