§ Mr. LEES SMITHasked the President how many passengers from and into the United Kingdom were enumerated between the Censuses of 1891 and 1901, and between the Censuses of 1901 and 1911; how he accounts for the difference between the net outward movement thus recorded and the increase of population shown by the Censuses of 1901 and 1911, taken in conjunction with the record of births and deaths registered during the intercensal periods; and whether he will cause an estimate of the population of the United Kingdom founded on all the available figures to be prepared annually and inserted in the Statistical Abstract?
Mr. BUXTONThe number of passengers arriving in the United Kingdom in the ten years 1901 to 1910 was, so far as recorded, 11,136,558, and the number of passengers recorded as departing in those ten years was 12,788,370. The corresponding numbers for the preceding ten years were 7,770,610 arrivals and 7,206,852 departures. My hon. Friend is doubtless aware that the returns of passenger movement have only been complete since the beginning of 1908; the totals for the precise intercensal periods cannot be stated. The relation between the figures of the Census and those derived from the passenger returns is dealt with in the Annual Report for 1910 on Emigration and Immigration. This Report will be issued tomorrow, and I will send a copy of it to my hon. Friend. With reference to the second part of the question, I understand that the subject of improved estimates of the numbers of the population year by year is engaging the attention of the authorities concerned.
§ Mr. LEES SMITHasked the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been called to the fact that during the last thirty years the method of estimating the total population of the country adopted by the Registrar-Generals of England and Scotland has produced results which, on the whole, compare very unfavourably with the official estimates for Ireland and with estimates made by private persons for England and Scotland; and whether he will consider the desirability of causing future estimates of the population of England and Wales to be based on the recorded figures of natural increase and inference from the Board of Trade and other official records of migration?
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§ Mr. BURNSAs my hon. Friend will have gathered from the Preliminary Report of the Census which has been published, the whole question is receiving careful consideration with a view to seeing whether the methods of estimating can be improved.