Vital statistics : a memorial volume of selections from the reports and writings of William Farr / edited for the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain by Noel A. Humphreys.

  • William Farr
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vital statistics : a memorial volume of selections from the reports and writings of William Farr / edited for the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain by Noel A. Humphreys. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    43/600 (page 11)
    We have, in couformity with the practice since 1801, for the sake of iitiiformity, enumerated as houses till the distinct buildings whicli were inhabited, as well as uninhabited houses, and houses building; and after thus avoiding the inextricable difficulties of the flats, we have still many heterogeneous structures mixed up with houses in the ordinary sense of that word. The house is a variable unit; it includes iu the Census the hut on the moor, the castle on the hill, and the palace; so that every one of these structures, and of the intermediate mansions and cottages, is reckoned as a house. The ordinary house varies in size and structure in town and country,—in its cubical contents, in its hearfehs, in its doors, and in its windows ; so that, to give a correct view of the accommodation which houses aftord the population, and of their value, and of their sanitary influences, a special inquiry is indispensable. —(Census Report, 1861, pp. 7-8.) Houses building.—The houses building were first enumerated iu 1811 ; and the enumeration has been since repeated at every Census. In a country under depopulation the old houses fall into decay ; many houses are uninhabited; and few new houses at a Census are building. And as the question, Is England increasing or decreasing —decaying or flourishing—was seriously discussed during the last French war, it was thought that the inquiry into the houses building might assist in its solution.* Upon comparing the number of houses building with the total numbers standing, this result is elicited:—in 1811 to 1 house building there were 114; in 1831 the proportion was 1 to 105; in 1861 it was 1 to 144. This seems to imply that since 1831 this indication of prosperity has taken au unfavourable turn. The question requires investigation, as it is by no means so simple as it appears to be on the surface. Houses are built to replace old houses, and to provide for the new families of the increasing population, ff we assume, for the sake of illustration, that one house in 100 falls into decay every year, so as to require reconstruction, the 3,431,533 houses of 1851 would be reduced, by the decay of 328,116, to 3,103,417 in ten years; but the houses in 1861 amounted to 3,924,199, or to 492,666 in excess of the houses in 1851 ; the new houses sufficing to replace the old houses, and to leave the enormous surplus, must upon this estimate have amounted to 820,7d2, or to 82,078 annually on an average. If au equal number of houses is built every year, and they last on an average the same number of years, the proportion which the number of houses building bears to the number of houses existing will depend on the mean time it takes to build a house. Thus, if the houses of a place amoimt to 1,000, and each lasts 100 years, the 1,000 houses will be kept up by the erection of 10 new houses eveiy year ; aud if each of the 10 Jiouses is built in a year the numbers building, corresponding to those at the Census, will, on au average, be 10. If each house takes 2 years foi- its construction, 20 houses building will figure in the Census return; if the houses are built iu half a year on an average, 5 only will be building, for 5 built in the first half of the year, and 5 in the second half of the year, make 10 annually. The change iu the ])roportion of the houses building to the subsisting Viouses is probably the consequence of the more rapid system of construction which is now carried on in the towns. Tiiiis if houses, * Preface to Ceusus Keport, 1811, p. x.