Islands in the British Seas

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XI.—ISLANDS IN THE BRITISH SEAS.


These islands consist of two groups, the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, and the Channel Islands. The whole of the Tables respecting these interesting islands are brought together at Vol. I., pp. 747-750, and Vol. II. pp. 905-929. They are on precisely the same plan as the Tables for England and Wales.

Isle of Man

The population of the Isle of Man increased slightly from 52,387 to 52,469, in the interval from 1851 to 1861. Mr. Burman, Clerk of Council and Secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor of the island, remarks, that the rural population has decreased; which is attributed to the large number of young persons who go for employment to England, where wages are considerably higher, or emigrate to the Colonies and the United States. Shipbuilding at Peel, the extension of lead-mines, and the attraction of Douglas as a watering place, have raised the population of those localities.

Jersey

The population of Jersey is 55,613, down to which it had fallen from 57,620 at the previous Census. The decrease is accounted for satisfactorily by Mr. Gardner, the Government Secretary. It is fairly attributable not so much to any decline in the advantages of Jersey as to the diminution of the disadvantages under which the English mainland laboured by heavy fiscal duties, which the progress of the public revenue and of free trade has enabled the Chancellor of the Exchequer to remove.

Guernsey, &c.

In Guernsey the population, for the same reasons, remained nearly stationary; and the increase of population in Alderney and the adjacent islands from 3,962 to 5,561 is due, as Captain Bell, Secretary to Government, remarks, to the "very large increase of workmen carrying on the works" in Alderney.

The population of the islands in the British Seas was nearly the same at the time of the two last Censuses: 143,126 and 143,447.

Tables 138-143

The various Tables present many points of interest, not only to the inhabitants but to all who desire to study small. communities, in juxtaposition with neighbouring peoples.

There were 23,012 inhabited houses in the islands, and 6.23 persons to a house.

There is a great excess of women in the islands; thus, to 100 men of the age of 20-40, there were 133 women, and at the higher ages the disproportion subsists.

Of 1,000 women of the age of 25-30, there are 503 wives, 471 spinsters, and 26 widows. See Appendix, pp. 168-9.

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