_Housing._--The total area of England and Wales covered by urban districts (a term which coincides pretty nearly with that of towns, which bears no technical meaning in England) was 3,848,987 acres, and contained a population of 25,058,355 in 1901, the increase in the decade 1891-1901 being 15.2%. The number of inhabited houses in the whole country in 1901, namely 6,260,852, may be compared with the numbers in 1801 (1,575,923) and 1851 (3,278,039); it gives an average of 5.2 persons to each house. This average has decreased with some regularity from a _maximum_ of 5.75 in 1821, but there is no certain evidence on which to affirm or deny that the average cubic capacity of dwelling-houses has been maintained. The urban population averaged 5.4 persons to a house, but varied greatly in different towns. Thus, an average below 4.4 is quoted for Rochdale, Halifax, Huddersfield, Yarmouth, Bradford and Stockport, while the average for London was 7.93, and for Gateshead, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and South Shields, in the northern industrial district of the Tyne, and for Devonport, the average exceeded 8. The average of persons to a house in rural districts was 4.6. +-------------+---------------------------+---------------------+ | | Percentage of | Excess of Estimated | | Year. +-------------+-------------+ over Enumerated | | | Increase by | Decrease by | Population. | | | Births. | Deaths. | | +-------------+-------------+-------------+---------------------+ | 1851-1861 | 36.19 | 23.58 | 122,111 | | 1861-1871 | 37.56 | 23.98 | 78,968 | | 1871-1881 | 37.89 | 22.80 | 164,307 | | 1881-1891 | 34.24 | 20.27 | 601,389 | | 1891-1901 | 31.57 | 19.18 | 68,330 | +-------------+-------------+-------------+---------------------+ _Vital Statistics._--"The increase or decrease of population is governed by two factors: (1) the balance between births and deaths, and (2) the balance between immigration and emigration."[13] The following table is therefore given to show (1) the percentage of increase by births and decrease by deaths in each decade from 1851, and (2) the difference at the close of each decade (i.e. in the later year mentioned in each line) between the population which would have followed upon the natural increase unaffected by migration and the population as actually enumerated. In the case of (2) the actual population has always been exceeded by the estimate based on natural increase, and this demonstrates an excess of emigration over immigration.