[Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, York City.

  • York (England). City Council.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, York City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/114 (page 6)
    ANNUAL REPORT, 1904. POPULATION. The population of the City at the end of June, 1904, estimated according to the Registrar-General’s method (based upon the rate of increase during the previous decade, 1891—1901, as revealed by the Census of 1901) was 81,268, as compared with 80,186 for 1903, an increase of i,oS2. The birth-rate and death-rates in this Report are calculated upon that figure. The natural increase of population,—i.e., the excess of births over deaths was in 1904, 972 as compared with 1,033 in 1903, LI24 in 1902, and 1,067 in 1901. The proportion of persons per acre is 21.7 and per house 4.707. As there was some reason to think that the Population of the City was not increasing since the Census of 1901 at the same rate as during the decade 1891—1901, and that therefore the Registrar-General’s estimates of the Population in the years 1902, 1903, and 1904 would possibly prove to be excessive, and so be too favourable to our death- rates, I have made various calculations with the object of discovering how far those official estimates might be considered reliable. It is extremely interesting to find that those estimates—which are based solely upon the rate of increase of population during th decade prior to the last Census—not only appear to be substantially correct, but that they are insufficient rather than excessive. It seems clear that, although cottage building and immigration have diminished consider¬ ably since 1901, yet—until June 30th, 1904, at any rate—the population of the City has been maintaining the 1891—1901 rate of increase. I believe this to be due largely to our lowered death-rate and to the consequent saving of hundreds of lives. The following table presents my calculations, which have been made and re-made with considerable care, and they are compared with the Registrar-General’s Estimates : —