Yateley‘s Population in 1881

Researched and written by Roy Maryon of the Yateley Society

Roy had been one of the researchers contributing to the Yateley History Project and used the Society‘s own transcriptions of the census records for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881

Mar 2008: Roy's diagrams and tables have not yet been added to these webpages

CARD A: POPULATION ANALYSIS

The population pyramid shows the number of males and females returned by the 1881 census as living in Yateley Tithing, arranged in 5-year age bands, the youngest at the bottom.

The 1881 census seems to mark a turning point: for 20 years the village population had been rising slowly, the rate of increase falling well below that for England as a whole. For the next 30 years it would accelerate to well beyond the national growth rate, to slow only during the decade of the Great War. Very likely 1881 lies in the transition from an agricultural to a more mixed local economy. The year was a turning point in another sense: during the 1870s the male and female population had been in approximate balance, but a relative decline of males began in 1881 which was to continue, with the help of two world wars and apparently greater natural vulnerability, into the middle of the 20th century.

In 1881 the population of Yateley Tithing was 1131, consisting of 559 males, 572 females. The average age was almost exactly 27 years, with about a 9 month difference between the sexes in favour of the women. The pyramid has a number of interesting features, not all of which are easy to explain. Contrast the steady decline in female numbers with age from childhood to the 30s with the more irregular pattern of the males. There are many more teenage youths than girls (139 to 104), although the proportion of men in their 20s drops sharply--were they seeking work elsewhere?

From the mid 20s to the late 40s women tend to be in the majority (for example, 83 to 58 among those in their 30s), but there is a relative shortage of women villagers in their late 50s. Despite a healthier lifestyle than most of us can claim these days, few exceeded the Biblical quota of three score years and ten, and these were equally apportioned between men and women. There are 4 men and 2 women of 80 plus, the oldest inhabitant a woman of 91.

Back to 1993 Exhibition: Yateley in 1878

(c) The Yateley Society 2008

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