The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-24 00:00:00

THE POPULATION OF LONDON.

The annual summary of births, deaths, and causes
of deaths in London and other large cities, has just
been issued by authority f the Registrar-General.
From this we learn that the people of London in the
main gain their own livelihood, and sustain their
own poor. How they gain their livelihood is shown
to a considerable extent by the census returns,
Agriculture, as may be anticipated, is scarcely re-
presented even among the males; but the members
of all the professions abound, and amount with their
immediate subordinates to 107,130; the commercial,
carrying, and warehousing class consists of 211,118;
but the class exceeding all the rest is the indus-
trial, numbering 504,772 males under specific em-
ployments, without counting 108,379 adult males, in.
eluding e 5,326 general labourers whose occupations are
less definite. Of women there are 630,030 wives,
daughters, and others engaged in household duties, or
aiding their husbands and parents; and no less than
226,393 domestic servants ! 4,879 women are school-
mistresses, 11,191 teachers and governesses, 5,272 book-
binders, 4,360 artificial flower makers, 58,460 milliners
or dressmakers, 14,780 tailoreuses, 26,875 shirt-
makers and seamstresses 4,699 shoe and bootmakers,
10,724 (sewing ?) machine workers, 43,998 laundry
women ; 29,013 women are returned simply as gentle.
women, or annuitants. The tables of the sexes, ages,
and conjugal condition show that of 1,081,973 of the
population of 1871 under 15 years of age, the number
of males and females is nearly equal ; that the number
of husbands and wives is 1,128,409 ; and the number
age 1 15 and upwards, widowed or unmarried of both
sexes, is 1,043,878. The number of wives 15 and under 45
years of age amounted to 408,837, of widows of the
same age to 34,565, of spinsters, to 414,851. The wives
bore 108,166 registered legitimate children in 1871 ; the
spinsters and widows 4,451 registered illegitimate
children. Of the 1,081,973 children under fifteen
years of age, 413,404 were returned as scholars,
617,236 as of no occupation, leaving only 51,333 chil-
dren of both sexes having specific occupations. This
is remarkable. Taking the 309,6158 children of ten and
under fifteen we have this result :-104,743 were re-
turned as scholars, 93,904 as of no specific occupation,
and 51,011 under employments, 10,175 of them being
messengers and errand boys.
The annual rateable value of property in London is
20 millions ; but it is impossible to may what the income
of the inhabitants amounts to; taken as a rough ap-
proximation at seven times the rateable value it would
amount to 140 millions a year. In the year ended
March, 1869, the receipts from rates, exclusive of
county rates, were £3,730,572; including the levies
for poor relief £1,509,922, for vestry expenditure
£1,112,218, for City Corporation and Commission of
Sewers £192,514. or Metropolitan Board of Works
£417,305, for Metropolitan Police 1:451,744. Besides
these rates of a municipal character, the receipts of
the thirteen gas companies for gas rates in the year
1870 were £2,046,974. while the receipts of the eight
water companies for water rates were £991,564,
making the levy of rates by these companies /3,038,538
a year.