ABSTRACT
THE West Midland region is, from a national point of view, an area of faster than average growth. From 1951 to 1961 the population of England and Wales rose by 5·3% whereas that of the West Midlands rose by 7.5%, an excess of 40% above the national average rate of growth. Since 1961 this trend has continued. By mid-1963 the population of the West Midlands had grown by a further 2.9% whilst that of England and Wales as a whole had grown by 2.1%. The regional growth in this period was thus 40% above the national average, and contrasts for example markedly with the rates of growth in Wales and the North-East where growth was only 0.8% and 1.3% respectively, over the same period. The Southern and Eastern regions grew of course at a still faster rate than the West Midlands.
