Of course the overall figure of persons per square mile across the whole area of a nation is a crude yardstick. In the case of Britain, for example, the new housing policy immediately following the Great War (‘Homes for Heroes’) required a density of new-builds, mostly for working class people, of four to the acre. Given that there are 640 acres in a square mile this, even then, would have translated to many more persons per square mile across the whole country than is the case today. Today a development of four house per acre would constitute ‘executive detached’ properties, each worth, probably, millions of pounds if site in the suburban fringe of west London.
By the mid-late 1930s the allowed density had been increased to eight per acre, this to reduce house-building costs. The picture above shows part of Garden Village, Barton on Humber, a small mid 1930s housing development built on the principles of the Garden Village Movement (for a thorough study see Clarke, R. article in Heritage, Barton and District History Group, Number One, p. 20-25).
I understand that the planning requirement for developers in 2005 was a maximum density of 16 house per acre (I am not sure whether this was before or after John Prescott as Environment minister increased the figure – nor whether this is the figure in 2018). Given that access roads, pavements etc. have to be taken into account in the number of houses that can be built per acre the result of this increasing house density figure has been that gardens (or the rectangular (usually) plot of land on which the house stands) has become progressively smaller. A working class ex-serviceman in 1920 living in his Homes for Heroes new-build would doubles feel very claustrophobic in its equivalent today (not that council houses are now being built).
Similarly some urban areas have a high density of population temporarily, central business districts (if that phrase is still in use) can have a huge density of population in the working day and very low at other times. Commuting seems to endure as a social phenomena despite the prediction that information technology would allow people to work from home.
Incidentally, not only the Great War veteran but also the medieval peasant might not envy the modern householder as the latter, although living in comparative squalor, did usually live in a ‘detached’ hovel.
(to be continued).