Abstract of the answers and returns made pursuant to an act, passed in the first year of the reign of His Majesty King George IV, intituled, "An act for taking an account of the population of Great Britain, and of the increase or diminution thereof" : M. DCCC. XXI [1821].

  • General Register Office Northern Ireland
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Abstract of the answers and returns made pursuant to an act, passed in the first year of the reign of His Majesty King George IV, intituled, "An act for taking an account of the population of Great Britain, and of the increase or diminution thereof" : M. DCCC. XXI [1821]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Public at large. After reasonable time allowed for the investigation, a single Act of Parliament might be passed, authorizing and enforcing the several alterations pointed out by the Magistrates. The Land Tax Acts, which were annual in the last century, fre- quently make arrangements of this kind, applicable to the Assessment of the Land Tax, but not for other purposes. The Enumeration of the whole Population may be considered as complete, no place being known finally to have omitted making Return. In cases where the name of a place differs from the Abstract of 1811, or where two places are included under one title, all the former Names are preserved in a Note, and in cases where any place has been trans- ferred from one Hundred to another, explanation is afforded in the same manner. The proportion of the Sexes was as 100 Males to no Females of the Resident Popu- lation in the years 1801 and 1811 ; at present to only 106 Females, a difference which may obviously be ascribed to the cessation of War, and the consequently smaller number of Males in the Army and Navy. In conclusion, it is proper to mention, that where the Total of any County, as laid before Parliament in February 1822, shall be found to differ from the Total in the present Volume, the latter is to be considered as the authentic Total, a few corrections on dis- covery of duplicate entries, of omissions, and of clerical errors, having been made on the final revision of the work. The only material error discovered in the Abstract of 1811, upon Collation with the present Abstract, occurs in the North Riding of the County of York, where from some clerical error in adding the Columns of the Liberty of Langbaurgh, an omission of 13,061 Persons took place, whence a diminution of Population between the Enumeration of 1801 and 1811 was ascribed to the North Riding, making it appear a singular and unaccountable exception from the general increase. The error is now rectified in the Comparative Table of Counties, [p. xxxii.] Concerning the Enumeration Abstract, nothing more remains to be said, but that the Population of the Islands of Mann, of Jersey, of Guernsey, audits adjacent Isles, has been obtained for the first time, and is entered in the Appendix, p. 545. AGES OF PERSONS. Connected with the Enumeration of Persons, a new Question concerning their Ages was added in the Year 1821 ; viz. IF you are of opinion that in making the preceding Enquiries (or at any time before returning this Schedule) the Ages of the several Individuals can be obtained in a manner satisfactory to yourself, and not incon- venient to the Parties, be pleased to state (or cause to he stated) the Number of those who are under 5 years of age, of those between 5 and 10 years of age, between 10 and 15, between 15 and 20, between 20 and 30, between 30 and 40, between 40 and .50, between 50 and Co, between 60 and 70, between 70 and 80, between 80 and 90, between 90 and 100, distinguishing Males from Females? IT will be perceived, from the tenor of this Question, that the Answers to it wrere purposely left optional, both as regarding the Returning Officer, and the Persons to whom the Question was to be proposed by him. Doubtless it was foreseen that no complete Return to such a question was to be expected; but it was also obvious that the Result sought, would be attained with sufficient degree of certainty, without endeavouring to enforce the enquiry upon the entire Population. In fact the Return of Ages embraces Eight- Ninths of the Persons enumerated ; a proportion which shews so much general good- will in execution of the Population Act, that the less laborious task of mere enumeration, cannot but have been performed in a careful manner to that extent at least. The Ages of Persons (as returned) appear at the end of each County, but do not and cannot afford means of Comparison, unless by a Calculation which supposes the same number of Persons to exist in every County. This has been accomplished as far as Six places of Figures, and appears in the annexed Table. For the sake of Compression, the two last places of Figures are omitted, unless where they are necessary for accuracy in the Columns which contain the more advanced stages of Human Life.