Census 1931

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Bearing in mind that births did not exceed deaths in the Colony until the mid-1930s it is not surprising to learn that the population in 1931 was not far different from that 40 years earlier. The population of Aden in 1931 was 46,638, only about 2,000 more than in 1891. Two Tables are of particular interest: the distribution by location and by ethnic background.

                

A like-for-like comparison with 1891 is difficult, but the biggest drop in numbers was in the Tawahi, Steamer Point and Hedjuff group. Certainly, with the change from coal to oil bunkering, there would have been fewer coolie gangs at Hedjuff. Although the numbers in Maala had trebled, it was still only a large village compared to what it would become in the early 1960s. The numbers in the Military Area had more than halved in spite of the RAF now being at Khormaksar. The drop was mainly due to the withdrawal of the British infantry battalion (and its families and followers) in 1928. The most significant increase was in the Sheikh Othman group, although one suspects most of the increase was in Sheikh Othman itself.

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Looking at ethnic background, in 1931 the category of ‘Christian’ has been replaced by ‘European’; with the British infantry gone, the numbers in this category are not much over a third of 40 years previously. 

 

What is interesting is that for the first time we have a total for Arabs and Somalis. The latter figure is quite a bit smaller than one might have expected, but then many of the coolie gangs had been Somali. There are now more Jews than Somalis and the former account for not far short of 10% of the population.