The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-30 00:00:00

AGE OF THE PEOPLE,

England (including Wales) was found to have in
it, when the census was taken in April, 1861,
593,721 babies and sucklings under one year old ;
2,107,061 infants of one year but under five
years old ; 2,344,066 children of 5 to 10 ; 1,059,889
boys and 1,045,287 girls, 10 to 15 ; 957,930 youths
and 974,712 maidens, 15 to 20 (though to speak by
the card,we should distinguish 29,719 as thus early
wed) ; 1,594,497 young men and 1,804,160 young
women, 20 to 30; 2,947,534 men and 3,149,320
women of middle age, 30 to 60; 641;282 old men and
733,515 old women, 60 to SO; and 47,260 very aged
men, and 65,990 very aged women, above 80. The
young population under 20 amounted in number
to 9,082,666 ; the population 20 years old and
upwards were 10,983,558. In the 10 years 1851
—lB6l the young population under 20 increased
by 971,654, and the population 20 years old and
upwards by 1,166,961. The rate of increase,
though very nearly the same in both classes, was
slightly higher among the young than among the
older population; not only the absolute number of
births, but the ratio of births to population, is in-
creasing. The population of England divides inio
two equal parts in respect to age at a little over 22;
and it is nearly 29 times the annual number of
births. These statements do not include our sol-
diers, sailors, and merchant seamen abroad, so that
the number of men in the middle period of life is to
a certain extent unduly depressed. The very aged
have not in the last ten years increased in near the
same proportion as the general population. In 1851
there were in England 107,041 persons who had
passed the limit of "14 years;'' in 1861 the number
had only increased to 113,250. In 1851 215 persons
were returned as being above 100 years old, but only
201 persons in 1861—one in every 100,000. Of this
last number 146 were women, and but
55 men nearly three women to one
man. Only 26 had never been married.
About a third were found living in large towns-
-21 in London, 11 in Liverpool, five in Manchester,
one in I3;rmingham, four in Bristol, one in Leeds.
As in 1851, so in 1861, these very aged persons
were not found so often in the midland districts of
the kingdom as in the north and the east, and most
of all in the west. At the last census Norfolk had
among its 435,000 people 11 above 100 years old ;
Gloucestershire,with 485,000 people, had eight cen-
tenarians ; and Somerset, with its 445,000, had nine.
Wales, with its 1,112,000, had no less than 24, the
same number as Lancashire with its 2,400,(100 people,
and more than London with its 2,800,000 inhabi-
tants. So far as the occupations of these long-lived
persons are given, the returns show a majority en-
gaged in pursuits that caused them to be much in
the open air. Three had been farmers, 1:3 out-door
farm servants, five labourers, three hawkers, three
seamen, three soldiers; there was a fisherman, a
quarrier, a waterworks man, a miller. But there
was also a scrivener, four shoemakers, a baker, a
grocer, a carpenter, a marine store dealer, three per-
sons occupied in cotton manufacture, two in woollen,
one in silk, one in lace. Of the women the returns
commonly state only whether the person :s wife or
widow, but we are told that there were six who had
been domestic servants, two nurses, three char-
women, two washerwomen, and a gipsy. One cen-
tenarian was a member of the Household, Fourteen
are described as land or house proprietors, or inde-
pendent; 19 were passing their last years in the
workhouse. Six were biind.

EARL DE GREY AND a►IPON having been elected
nigh Steward of Hull, in the place of the late Marquis of
Nornaanby, will visit that town on the 14th of October.