the number was still affected by the
Black Death of 1348-1349. It is calculated, on the basis of registers of
births and deaths, that the population of England and Wales numbered
5,475,000 in 1700, and 6,467,000 in 1750. From the later part of the
18th century a stronger tendency to increase set in, and at the taking
of the first census, in 1801, it was ascertained that the population
numbered 8,892,536, being--if the former estimates were approximately
correct--an increase of very nearly 2-1/2 millions in little over fifty
years. This rate of increase was not only continued, but came to be
greatly exceeded.

Since the first census of 1801, regular enumerations of the people of
England and Wales have been taken every ten years. The results of these
enumerations are published in separate volumes for each county, in a
volume of summary tables, and in a general report. In the summaries
England and Wales are treated as one, and this treatment is followed
here. The following table gives the total numbers of the population of
England and Wales at each census, together with the absolute increase,
and growth per cent, during each decennial period:--

+------------------+-------------+--------------+--------------+
| Dates of | | Increase at |Decennial Rate|
| Enumeration. | Population. | each Census. | of Increase |
| | | | per Cent. |
+------------------+-------------+--------------+--------------+
| 1801, March 10th | 8,892,536 | . . | . . |
| 1811, May 27th | 10,164,256 | 1,271,720 | 14.00 |
| 1821, May 28th | 12,000,236 | 1,835,980 | 18.06 |
| 1831, May 30th | 13,896,797 | 1,896,561 | 15.80 |
| 1841, June 7th | 15,914,148 | 2,017,351 | 14.27 |
| 1851, March 31st | 17,927,609 | 2,013,461 | 12.65 |
| 1861, April 8th | 20,066,224 | 2,138,615 | 11.90 |
| 1871, April 3rd | 22,712,266 | 2,646,042 | 13.21 |
| 1881, April 4th | 25,974,439 | 3,262,173 | 14.36 |
| 1891, April 6th | 29,002,525 | 3,028,086 | 11.65 |
| 1901, April 1st | 32,527,843 | 3,525,318 | 12.17 |
+------------------+-------------+--------------+--------------+

Allowing for a rate of increase equivalent to that which obtained
between 1891 and 1901, the estimated population was 34,152,977 in 1905,
and 36,169,150 in 19