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PRELIMINARY REPORT

TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH, K.T.,

HIS MAJESTY'S SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND.

CENSUS OFFICE,
EDINBURGH, 13th JUNE 1901.

MY LORD,

The Census (Great Britain) Act, 1900, 63 Vict., ch. 4, enacted that a Census of the inhabitants of Great Britain be taken upon Sunday the thirty-first day of March 1901. For this purpose it was provided that-every Registration District should be divided into Enumeration Districts, and an Enumerator appointed for each Enumeration District, who was directed to leave 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, or of any part thereof, to be filled up by the same, giving particulars regarding the name, sex, age, profession or occupation, condition as to marriage, relation to head of family, birth-place, and (where the person was born abroad) nationality of every living person who abode in every house on the night of the Census day, whether any person who so abode was blind or deaf or dumb or imbecile or lunatic, if any one so living speaks Gaelic only or both Gaelic and English, with particulars furnished by the Enumerators as to the number of windowed rooms in each dwelling-house.

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, Leith, Paisley, Greenock, and Perth, not later than the twentieth of April, and were by those authorities transmitted to the Registrar-General in Edinburgh on or before the first day of May. The Occupiers'. Schedules were, on or before the twentieth day of April, forwarded direct by the Registrars to the Registrar-General, without passing through the hands of the Sheriffs or Magistrates.

From the Summaries prepared by the Registrars the following Tables have been drawn up, and the numbers 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.

The Enumerators were instructed to enumerate the Houses, distinguishing those inhabited, uninhabited, and building, and reckoning as a Separate House every dwelling (1) with a distinct outside entrance from a street, court, lane, road etc., or (2) with, a door opening directly into a Common Stair or Passage; but any such dwelling, if sub-divided and occupied by different families, to be reckoned as one 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 Counties and Parishes have been obtained with considerable labour.

From those Returns the population of Scotland on the Census day of the present year, including those in the Royal Navy, and belonging to the Mercantile shipping in Scottish Ports or on Scottish waters, number 4,472,000 persons, of whom 2,173,151 are males, and 2,298,849 females.

When compared with the corresponding population as enumerated at the Census of 1891, a total increase of 446,353 is found to have occurred; the male increase being 230,434, and the female 215,919. The percentage rate of increase of both sexes during the decennial period is 11.09.that of the males being 11.86, and of the females 10.37. The corresponding total rate of increase during the preceding decennium, 1881-1891, was 7.77 per cent, and Table VI. shows that the rate at the present Census for Scotland is, with the exception of that at 1881, the highest since the decennial period 1821-1831.

TABLE VII. shows the Increase or Decrease of population during the past decennium in each County in Scotland, as also the rates of the same.

In 19 Counties an increase in their population has taken place, in 14 a decrease. The highest rate of increase.both sexes combined.is in Linlithgow, 24.4 per cent., followed by Lanark with an increase of 2.1 per cent.; Stirling with one of 20.6 per cent.; Renfrew with one of 16.5 per cent.; Dumbarton with one of 16.2 per cent.; Kincardine with one of 15.3 per cent.; Fife with one of 15.0 per cent. The greatest falling off occurs in Berwick, 4.6 per cent.; in Orkney, 5.7 per cent.; in Roxburgh, 8.8 per cent.; in Caithness, 8.9 per cent.; in Wigtown, 9.4 per cent.; and in Selkirk, 15.8 per cent. Inverness stands almost as it was, having increased but 0.1 per cent., and the minimum rate of falling off as to population is in Banff, 0.3 per cent., and Argyll, 0.6 per cent.

For Registration purposes the population of Scotland is divided into Registration Counties and Districts, the latter primarily so into five groups.viz., Principal Town Districts, Large Town Districts, Small Town Districts, Mainland Rural Districts, and Insular Rural Districts. The populations of those, as far as at present possible, are given in Tables X.. and XL, where they are grouped into three, viz.:.Town Districts, Mainland Rural, and Insular Rural Districts, and from a consideration of the same when compared with the corresponding at 1891 some idea may be formed as to the movements going on among the inhabitants of Scotland, and it is from this same source that much information is afforded by the Registrar-General in his various Reports.

Among the larger Burghs the increase of population varies not a little. Thus, in Motherwell, which heads the list, the increase during the decennial period 1891-1901, is at the rate of 62.5 per cent. Partick follows with a rate of increase of 48.6 per cent.; Wishaw with one of 36.8 per cent; Hamilton with one of 31.8 per cent.; Kirkcaldy with one of 25.5 per cent.; Falkirk with one of 24.3 per cent; Govan with one of 24.2 per cent.; Coatbridge with one of 21.3 per cent.; Aberdeen with one of 22.9 per cent.; Kilmarnock with one of 20.1 per cent.; Paisley with one of 19.5 per cent.; Airdrie with one of 16.5 per cent.; Glasgow with one of 15.5 per cent.; Ayr with one of 15.1 per cent.; Edinburgh with one of 14.8 per cent.; Dunfermline with one of 14.1 per cent.; Leith with one of 12.6 per cent.; Inverness with one of 10.3 per cent.; Perth with one of 9.9 per cent.; Greenock with one of 7.4 per cent.; and Dundee with one of 4.5 per cent.; while Arbroath indicates a decrease at the rate of 1.9 per cent.

TABLE I. comprises the number of the Population, distinguishing the Sexes, of the Families, of Houses, and of Booms with one or more windows, in SCOTLAND, in its BIGHT DIVISIONS, and in its Thirty-three CIVIL COUNTIES, on the 31st day of March 1901. The numbers include the Military in Barracks and the Seamen on board His Majesty's Ships, and those of the Mercantile Marine in Scottish Harbours or Waters at midnight of the 31st of March, but do not include those on board Scottish Vessels which were in English, Irish, or Foreign Ports, or at Sea, at that same time.

TABLE II. exhibits the same facts for SCOTLAND, grouped in its EIGHT REGISTRATION DIVISIONS, and its Thirty-three REGISTRATION COUNTIES.

TABLE III. is prepared with the view of showing the Comparative Increase or Decrease in the Numbers of the Population and Houses in 1891 and 1901, in SCOTLAND, and in its CIVIL COUNTIES.

TABLES IV., V., and VI. show the Number of the Population, distinguishing the Sexes, in SCOTLAND and in each of its CIVIL COUNTIES, at the taking of each Census from 1801 to 1891, with the Increase or Decrease and the Rates of the same in the respective Sexes, in each decennial period from 1801 to 1891.

TABLE VII. shows the Numbers of the Population, distinguishing the Sexes, in SCOTLAND and in each of its CIVIL COUNTIES as at the Censuses 1891 and 1901, with the proportionate Rate of Increase or Decrease in the same during that decennial period. [Note:— This Table is necessary owing to many changes in area-caused by the Orders of the Boundary Commissioners and of the Secretary for Scotland since the Enumeration of the Population at 1891.

TABLE VIII. 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 CIVIL PARISH in SCOTLAND.

TABLE IX. 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.

TABLE X. Population of SCOTLAND in 1891 and 1901, arranged in Three Groups of Districts (Town, Mainland Rural, and Insular Rural), together with the Number of Families, Houses, and Rooms with Windows in 1901, while TABLE XL shows the Increase or Decrease of Males, Females, and Persons, and the Percentage of the same between the Census Periods 1891 and 1901.

TABLE XII. gives the number of Persons on board Ships on Scottish Waters, in the several Counties on the night of March 31st, 1901.

We have the honour to be,
MY LORD,
Your Most Obedient Servants,

STAIR AGNEW,
Registrar-General ,

R. J. BLAIR CUNYNGHAME, M.D.

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