Introduction
TO THE HER MAJESTY'S SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND. CENSUS OFFICE, MY LORD, The Census (Scotland) Act, 1890, 53 and 54 Vict. cap. 38, enacted that a Census of the inhabitants of Scotland be taken upon Sunday the fifth day of April 1891. For this purpose every Registrar in Scotland was directed to have left at every dwelling-house within his District, during the course of the week ending on the Saturday next before the Census day, a Schedule as prepared under the direction of the Secretary for Scotland; for the occupier or occupiers thereof to be filled up by the same, giving particulars regarding the name, relation to head of family, condition as to marriage, sex, age, profession or occupation, birth-place of every living person who abode in every house on the night of the Census day, if any such speaks Gaelic only, or both Gaelic and English, and also whether any person was from birth deaf and dumb, blind, a lunatic, imbecile or idiot. The Enumerators collected the Schedules, so filled up, and copied all the particulars into the Enumeration Books, which, with the Schedules and other documents, were handed to the Local Registrars, who, after revising the work of the Enumerators, prepared Summaries of each district. These Summaries, together with all the Enumeration and Memorandum Books, were then sent to the Sheriffs of Counties, and to the Chief Magistrates of the following Towns,—Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Greenock, Paisley, Leith, and Perth, not later than twenty-one days after the Census day, and were by those authorities transmitted to the Registrar-General in Edinburgh on or before the sixth day of May. The Householders' Schedules were, on or before the twenty-fifth day of April, forwarded direct by the Registrars to the Registrar-General, without passing through the hands of Sheriffs or Magistrates. From the Summaries prepared by the Registrars, the following Tables have been drawn up, and the numbers which they exhibit are probably not far from being correct, but will no doubt hereafter acquire more precision when the systematic revision of the details of the Census which is now being proceeded with in this Office is completed. The Schedules containing information as to the population on board Shipping, both in the Royal Navy and in the Mercantile Marine, and who at the date of the Census were in Scotland or on Scottish waters, the returns of which are not included in the Registrars' Summaries, were collected and forwarded to this office, in the one case through the Board of Admiralty and in the other by the Registrar-General of Shipping, the Schedules of the latter being collected by the Officers of H.M. Customs at the various Ports of the United Kingdom. In one particular does the Householders' Schedule differ from that used at the Census of 1881, and this is under the beading of Profession or Occupation. On the present occasion it has been considered advisable to obtain, if possible, fuller details than at former Censuses upon this point, and accordingly information is requested as to whether an individual is an employer of others, is employed himself or herself, or is simply working on his or her own account; but as those facts are not required to be stated in the Summaries, they do not come under consideration in this Interim Report. The definition of a House is in the present as in last Census, viz., (1) every dwelling with a distinct Outside Entrance
from a street,, court, lane, road, &c., or (2) with a door opening directly into a Common Stair
; but any such dwelling, if subdivided and occupied by different families, is reckoned as only a single house. The Returns are made under the Superintendence of the Local Registrars of Births, Deaths, and Marriages throughout the country, whose districts in many instances do not correspond with Civil Parishes and Counties; and, in consequence, the population of Civil and Registration Counties, which are given on separate Tables, have been only obtained with much labour, and in some cases corrections of the Registrars' Summaries. From the information now obtained we are enabled to state, that on the Census day of the present year the population of all Scotland, including those in the Royal Navy and belonging to the Mercantile Shipping in Scottish Ports or on Scottish Waters, amounted to 4,033,103 persons, of whom 1,951,461 are males, and 2,081,642 females. Those numbers, when compared with the corresponding as enumerated at the Census 1881, show a total increase of 297,530, the male increase being 151,986, and the female 145,544. The percentage of increase of the population of Scotland during the last Decennium has been 7.96, that of the male sex alone being 8.45, and of the female 7.52. These rates of increase, when compared with the corresponding of former periods, are found (with the exception for the Decennium 1851-1861) to be the lowest recorded since the Census 1801-1811The population of Scotland is subdivided by the Registrar-General into five groups of Registration Districts, concerning whose population much tabular information is afforded in his various reports. They are—the Principal Town Districts, Large Town Districts, Small Town Districts, Mainland Rural Districts, and insular Rural Districts, and a study of their numbers obtained at the two Census enumerations, 1881 and 1891, affords some in formation as to the movements now going on among the inhabitants of Scotland. In like manner some particulars regarding the recent progress of each of the Principal Towns may be gathered, from which it is to be inferred that the rate of increase or decrease among them has varied not a little. The greatest change is indicated in Paisley and Aberdeen, there being at the present Census an increase in their populations, in the former to the extent of 19.39 per cent. and in the latter of 16.02 per cent., when compared with what they were at the 1881 Census. In Glasgow the increase is at the rate of 10.62 per cent.; in Edinburgh, of 11.46 per cent.; in Dundee, of 9.26 per cent.; in Leith, of 14.55 per cent.; in Perth, of 3.37 per cent.; in Kilmarnock, of 8.10 per cent.; and in Glasgow Landward and Suburban, of 30.04 per cent On the other hand, there is in Greenock a decrease at the rate of 4.97 per cent. TABLE I
. comprises the number of the Population, distinguishing the Sexes, of the Families, of Houses, and of Rooms with one or more windows in SCOTLAND, in its EIGHT DIVISIONS, and in its Thirty-three CIVIL COUNTIES, on the 5th of April 1891. The numbers include the Military in Barracks and the Seamen on board Her Majesty's Ships, and those of the Mercantile Marine in Scottish Harbours or Waters at midnight of the 5th of April, but do not include those on board Scottish Vessels which were in English, Irish, or Foreign Ports, or at Sea, at that same time. The returns from the Island of St Kilda have not yet been received; but to complete the Tables, the population of that Island has been entered as it stood in 1881. TABLE II
. exhibits the same facts for SCOTLAND, grouped in its EIGHT REGISTRATION DIVISIONS, and its Thirty-three REGISTRATION COUNTIES. With the exception of the Insular Counties of Shetland and Orkney, the populations of the Registration Counties differ more or less from those of the Civil Counties. TABLE III
. is prepared with the view of showing the Comparative increase or Decrease in the Numbers of the Population and Houses in 1881 and 1891, in SCOTLAND and in its several CIVIL COUNTIES. TABLE IV. shows the Numbers of the Population, distinguishing the Sexes, in each of the CIVIL COUNTIES of SCOTLAND, at the taking of each census from 1801 to 1891. TABLE V. is framed from IV., and shows the Increase or Decrease of the population in each of the CIVIL COUNTIES, and in all SCOTLAND, in the intervals between the taking of the several Censuses from 1801 to 1891. TABLE VI. is based on the numbers given in Table V., and shows the Rates of Increase or Decrease in the respective Sexes, and in the whole Population of SCOTLAND, in each of its CIVIL COUNTIES, in decennial periods, from 1801 to 1891. TABLE VII. gives such particulars as can be obtained from the Registrars' Summaries, regarding the Number of Families, of Houses, of Population, and of Rooms with Windows in each BURGH, ROYAL, PARLIAMENTARY, and POLICE, or MUNICIPAL. TABLES VIII. and IX. give a Comparative View of the Population of Scotland, when thrown into Five Groups of Registration Districts, according to Density of Population, viz., Principal Town Districts, Large Town Districts, Small Town Districts, Mainland-Rural and Insular-Rural Districts ;—Table VIII. giving in each the Total Number of Persons and the Numbers of each Sex, together with the Number of Houses, Families, and Rooms with Windows in 1891, while Table IX. shows the Increase of Males, Females, and Persons, and the Percentage of Increase between the Census periods 1881 and 1891. TABLES X. and XI. show similar facts for the Principal Towns in Scotland. TABLE XII. gives the Number of Persons on board Ships on Scottish Waters, in the several Counties, on the night of April 5th, 1891. We have the honour to be, My Lord,
INTERIM REPORT
MOST HONOURABLE THE MARQUESS OF LOTHIAN, K.T.,
EDINBURGH, 16th June
1891.
Your most obedient Servants,
STAIR AGNEW,
Registrar-General.
R. J. BLAIR CUNYNGHAME, M.D.