Census 1951, England and Wales : preliminary report.

  • General Register Office Northern Ireland
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Census 1951, England and Wales : preliminary report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/80
    In each of the regions, the population of 1951 is greater than it was in 1931 with increases varying between 27-2 and O-I per cent.—a fairly wide range for areas of these dimensions. In half the regions the increases exceed the average for the country as a whole and are below in the other half, but with a contrast greater than would be normally expected from this equal division ; in the above-average areas the increases are not only above but substantially above average, none being less than 15 per cent. and reaching 24-1 and 27-2 in the Southern and Eastern areas ; in the below-average increases on the other hand, the highest is of 5-5 per cent. in the London and South Eastern diminishing to the barely perceptible minimum of o-1 per cent. for Wales. Compared with the preceding period 1921-31, the changes in a majority of the regions call for no outstanding comment having regard to the comparable national increases recorded. The main and outstanding exception to this generality is the London and South Eastern region with a recent rate of increase little more than half the national figure in contrast to one nearly double in the earlier period ; the explanation and location of the change is at once evident from the last two columns of the table from which it is clear that the steady and substantial gain by migration which was a feature of earlier years continued unabated up to the outbreak of war following which it was reversed by an unsurpassed loss, mainly by evacuation, from which it has not recovered and of which the net result has been more than to offset the immigrant gain of the pre-war section of the period. The somewhat abnormal advance now recorded for the South Western region is probably largely to be explained as part of the complementary gain arising from the loss in London and South Eastern. In spite of such recovery as has been made from the earlier depression in the coal mining, heavy manufacturing and textile industries of the north, the regions involved still continue to lose popu- lation by migration on balance, a condition which probably characterizes Wales also though there may have been an offsetting gain here from the retention of some of the war evacuees. The above- average rates of growth recorded for the Southern, Eastern and the two Midland regions between Ig2I and I93I are even more accentuated in the latest record, a reflection no doubt of the general prosperity associated with them. Counties. Turning now to the counties, Table V on page 44 shows how the intercensal increases and decreases are distributed amongst the several counties, the area for this purpose being the administrative county with its associated county boroughs. They are summarized in Table D and shown side by side with the distribution for the preceding intercensal period. : r, Table D 192I—1931 1931-1951 Rate of Increase or Decrease Number Increase or Number Increase or of Decrease in of Decrease in Counties. Population. Counties. Population. 50-55 ne are — — I 208,529 45-50 Pa ae —_ —_— —_— — 40-45 saa = 3 301,726 35-409 rer ae 2 1,050,725 30-35 I 385,726 I 65,981 Percentage < 25-30 I 250,792 4 551,904 Increase 20-25 I 68,011 5 507,396 15-20 — — 12 1,234,049 10-15 6 364,985 9 491,823 5-10 13 577,440 9 276,115 O-5 22 604,253 6 225,284 0-5 9 149,373 if 69, 109 5-10 9 36,156 Zz 3,809 Percentage }) 10-15 — —_ — —_— Decrease 15-20 —- — — —_— 20-25 — — I 1,048,667 25-30 -- — — — + 2,251,207 52 + 4,914,132 Total .. a 8 — 185,529 Io — 1,121,585 In 52 of the 62 county areas thus identified, the population has increased since 1931 and in 37 of the 52 the rate of growth exceeds the average for the country as a whole. Hertfordshire ranks highest on the list with an increase of 52-0 per cent. placing it well away from the three next ranking counties of Sussex West, Buckingham and Bedford each with substantial increases of between 41 and 43 percent. Nine of the ten counties with the highest advances are located around London or in the south eastern corner of the country and, though the larger part of their increases in most cases had accrued in the years prior to the war, the development since 1939 has in every case been above the national average and, in most, substantially so. The outstanding feature of the county record, however, is that of the County of London which is dealt with in greater detail later and may be noted here as having lost more than a million of its population since 1931. Its percentage decline of 23-8 is nearly four times as great as the next lower decline in the county series and with the exception of Durham (-1°5 per cent.) it is the only o. —_—,.
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