Migration to London and the development of the north–south divide, 1851–1911

Abstract

This article uses census data for England and Wales covering the period 1851-1911 to provide new insights into patterns of migration to London. It examines several related themes including the role migration played in London's growth during this period, age and gender differentials, and distance travelled. Calculating net migration rates, the article demonstrates that after age 30, of those born outside of London, more left the Capital than came, yet over time an increasing proportion of the migrant population was retained. The proportion of family migrants fluctuated over the period, yet compared to others tended to travel shorter distances, a feature which increased over time with suburbanisation. Turning to the geographical origins of migrants, London drew migrants from across the entirety of England and Wales. However, the data suggest that the migrant sex ratio became more homogeneous over time, with distinct pockets of male dominated migration that were visible in 1851 disappearing by 1911. Lastly, the article investigates migration from the perspective of place of departure rather than destination, as is traditionally the case. This reveals a distinct regional geography, suggesting that the present-day north-south divide was already evident in 1851, and became increasingly distinct over time.

Revisiting the Fertility Transition in England and Wales: The Role of Social Class and Migration

“…This means that distance between place of birth and place of residence could be calculated for only those born in England and Wales and only for those who gave sufficient detail on their place of birth to allow this to be accurately identified. To produce lifetime migration measures from nineteenth century census data, the birthplace strings were standardized from 6.5 million plus unique strings to a smaller set of some 16,000 parish and county combinations (Schürer and Day 2019 ; Schürer et al 2015 ). For each individual with a valid identifiable birthplace, a Euclidean distance (measured in kilometers (km)) was calculated between the centroids of the place of birth and the parish of enumeration.…”

Local Population Studies in the Era of 'Big Data'

“…The I-CeM census data can be used, for example, to map the birthplaces of the inhabitants of specific places in a given census, or to map the places of residence at any given census of those born in particular localities, and thus to delineate lifetime migration links both to and from specific localities. 23 A third argument is more complex, but may help to provide a clearer exposition of the role of local studies in the future. We might start with the concept of place discussed by J.D.…”

Educational, Labor-Market and Intergenerational Consequences of Poor Childhood Health

“…In doing so, we apply the methods for linking historical U.S. census data developed by Ferrie (1996) and refined by Abramitzky et al (2012), Feigenbaum (2016), Mill and Stein (2016), and Bailey et al (2020). We modify these methods to suit the U.K. context in which birthplace is non-standardized and reported at multiple levels of time-varying geographic boundaries (Schürer and Day 2019). While we are unable to link girls from the hospital records to long-run outcomes due to name changes at marriage, we can observe educational and health status in the medium-run for both genders.…”