Until the beginning of the 19th century there existed no other knowledge of the actual area and population of the country but what was given in the vaguest estimates. But there can be little doubt that the population of England and Wales increased very slowly for centuries, owing largely to want of intercommunication, which led to famines, more or less severe--it being a common occurrence that, while one county, with a good harvest, was enjoying abundance, the people of the adjoining one were starving. The interpretation of certain figures given in the Domesday Survey (which do not cover certain parts of modern England nor take account of the ecclesiastical population) is a matter of widely divergent opinion; but a total population of one million and a half has been accepted by many for the close of the 11th century. In 1377 the levying of a poll-tax provides partial figures from which a total of two to two-and-a-half millions has been deduced, but again divergent views have been expressed as to how far 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 2½ 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 | +------------------+-------------+--------------+--------------+