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38
HOUSING CONDITIONS.
The area of Deptford is 1,564 acres, and the population 106,891
persons, giving an over-all density of 68.3 persons per acre.
According to the Census figures now available, the population
during the last decennium decreased by 5,643 persons, or approximately
5 per cent., the natural increase in population (i.e., excess of births
over deaths) which was 6.6 per cent., being more than offset by a net
outward migration movement of 11.6 per cent. Co-incidentally with
this, there has been a relative increase in the number of persons, and
especially of males, in the younger age groups. With a sustained high
marriage rate it is therefore not surprising that the number of individual
families increased during the last decennium by 1,241 or 4.5 per cent.
Housing conditions can usefully be considered in the light of
available information from the following points of view:—the number
of actual dwellings, the number of rooms contained therein and the
number and size of the private families occupying them. At the outset
it should be understood that the term "private family" includes any
person or group of persons who are in separate occupation of premises
or part of premises, and "structurally separate dwelling" denotes a
room or set of rooms having separate access to street or to a common
staircase. A private house which has not been "structurally subdivided"
ranks as a single unit even though occupied by several
families.
Excluding institutions, etc., housing non-private families, there are
17,750 separate dwellings at the Census in 1931, occupied by 29,248
families, an excess of 11,498 private families over occupied dwellings.
The number of occupied dwellings in the intercensal period decreased
by 125, while the number of families per occupied dwelling increased
by 1.57 in 1921 to 1.65 in 1931. There has been a decrease in the
size of private families, the average now being 3-56 persons, and a
decrease in the number of rooms per occupied dwelling, the average
now being 3.62 rooms. Of the total 17,750 structurally separate
dwellings, the following are the details of the family occupation:—
8,244 occupied by one private family, 7,833 by two families, and 1,673
by three or more families.
Consideration may also be given to another feature of the housing
situation, viz., the number of persons per room occupied. In 1921 the
number was 1.05 person per room occupied, contrasted with 0.98 in