THE 1891 CENSUS

Having written in the notes on the census of 1872 that the members of the garrison and children under a certain age were not included in any of the periodic census, this is already proved to be incorrect as both categories were included in the 1891 census! Taking these two categories into account the increase in population in 19 years was a little more than 50% rather than more than doubling.

Since it was not to be until the 1930s that births exceeded deaths within the boundaries of Aden, one can readily appreciate that it was migrant workers that was causing the increase, most of whom came without their families. Summaries are often misleading. For example 70% of the population was male – but if one subtracts the children of both sexes under 15 who were ‘dependant on others’ males outnumbered females by three to one. (See Table 3 below). There was one exception to this disparity of sexes, and that was in the ‘New Town’ of Sheikh Othman where there was little appreciable difference between the totals of males and females. (See Table 2 below) 

When comparing Table 1 for 1891, totals by religion (but this time including Christians), with the similar Table for 1872 one must remember that the former includes children. From a causal glance it might appear that proportionately the Hindus had increased the most – until one takes into account that the Indian battalion in 1872 was Muslim and in 1891 it was Hindu.

Table 1 – by Religion

Table 2 shows the numbers living in each district of Aden. Some comments are necessary. By 1891 the coaling agents had established lines (living quarters) in Hedjuff for the coolie gangs – very much in the migrant worker category, and without families. Since serving Army personnel numbered only a little over 2,000 the ‘Military limits’ figures must have included followers and civilians living within the various cantonments. ‘Aden harbour’ includes all those living in the port area, including naval personnel both those ashore and also those aboard any station ships.

Note that the overall total about 2,750 less than that given in Table 1. The balance is made up of those on board ships in Aden harbour on census day. These fall into two categories: those on steamers calling at Aden and those on ‘country craft’ – the dhows and buggalows that were used for trading locally and further afield, to Zanzibar and the Persian Gulf in particular. Whereas none of the former category would be Adenis (and these accounted for 1346 males and 61 females) a fair proportion of the latter (22 Hindus, 2 Europeans and 1272 Muslims) would have been from Aden. Taking the above into account the total number of those actually living in Aden  in 1891 would have been around 42,000.                          

Table 2 – Population by District

Table 3 shows the number of children under 15. Apart from the children of European and Indian Service expatriates one can assume that most of the rest were permanent Aden residents. A total of about 10,800 gives an average of only around 720 born each year. In 1891 there were only 465 (live) births within the local population, a remarkably low figure which reinforces the view that it was the migrant workers that swelled the population numbers. The male ‘dependant on others’ figure gives an idea of the numbers of the aged and handicapped. The totals in Table 3 equal the overall total in Table 1.

Table 3 – Numbers of Employed and Children

The final Table shows the males in the various military lines; it is included to highlight the fact that the Indian infantry battalion was Hindu. The Christians in Crater and Steamer point would have been from the Connaught Rangers and the Royal Artillery, a third battery of the latter having been added during the year to man the coastal artillery in the forts. European troops were 1002 and Indian 1044. In the garrison there were 70 British officers, 20 of whom were serving in Indian units. Not shown in the table are 15 men from other religions (9 Jews, 5 Parsees and 1 Buddhist), most of whom were probably vendors in the camps

Table 4 – Military Lines by Religion