Liverpool has always had many achievements to be proud of. In the field of health and welfare it has plenty of important achievements in which Liverpool people can truly say the city led the way. Unfortunately in the 19th and early 20th centuries Liverpool also led the way in terms of having the worst conditions in housing, health and sanitation. Like most industrial cities in the 19th century, Liverpool grew rapidly. The early figures shown here are estimates, but the archives of the region contain the censuses which began in 1801 and continued every ten years.
| YEAR |
POPULATION |
| 1272 |
840 |
| 1600s |
c2000 |
| 1700 |
c6000 |
| 1750 |
20,000 |
| 1790 |
53,853 |
| 1800 |
c80,000 |
| 1821 |
118,972 |
| 1831 |
205,416 |
| 1841 |
286,487 |
The rise in population was much faster than the increase in housing, water supplies, sanitation and health care. Disease was common and deadly, and few diseases were feared as much as the cholera outbreaks which swept through British cities in the 1830s and 1840s and which broke out again from time to time.
Explore Further - other weblinks
Victorian Britain (National Archives)
Victorian Medicine (BBC) |
