Population Population of Increase of Increase Years. New York. per cent. Brooklyn. per cent. 1850 515,547 96,838 1860 05,651 56.2 266,661 175.3 1870 942,292 16.9 396,099 48.5 1880 1,206,299 28.0 566,663 43.0 As the present Twenty-sixth Ward of Brooklyn was not a part of the city in 1880, a comparison of the population of Brooklyn, as the city is now constituted, with the population of the City of New York would be as follows: The figures for 1888 for both cities are estimated on the basis already stated. Increase Increase Year. New York. per cent. Brooklyn. per cent. 1880 1,206,299 580,318 1888 1,585,529 782,221 --------- ------- 379,230 23.9 201,903 34.7 3 pr. cent. 4.3 pr. cent. per year. per year. The records of the Building Department aid in testing the estimates already submitted, and more strikingly in disclosing the character of the population now coming to us. During the twelve months ending on November 30 of this year, 4,226 permits were granted for buildings of all varieties, estimated by their projectors to cost $22,377,825. The estimated value of this proposed construction has not been exceeded during any similar period in the City's history. The buildings of a residence description were to furnish accommodation for 10,457 families. Not every building for which a permit is issued is afterwards completed, but the magnitude of the volume of the business of this department--even after making all reasonable deductions for the plans not carried out--at least justifies all that has been said thus far concerning the City's present proportions and rate of progress. The United States census of 1880 declared the City's population of 566,663 to be contained in 115,076 families; thus fixing the average membership of each family at 4.92. It is hardly credible therefore that the permits issued for residence purposes during the past year represent the City's actual growth during any given period of twelve months. If families now average as then, these permits would furnish homes for more than 51,000 souls--a number, to my mind, in excess of the City's yearly growth. We must, therefore, assume that there is some discrepancy between the methods of designation employed in 1880 by the United States officials and those of the building department, or that the average number of persons in each family is now less than in 1880, or that these permits represent more than the actual needs of the period during which they were granted. Probably the last supposition is best founded. Like New York, the City may have been overbuilt during the past two or three years, and this record, no