User:Sandpiper/Deathly Hallows
The population of England in 1650 was approximately 5.25 million, which declined to about 4.9 million by 1680, recovering only to just over 5 million by 1700. Urban areas had significantly higher death rates generally than rural areas, and maintained their populations by a constant movement of people from country to town. Other diseases, such as smallpox, took a high toll on the population even when plague ceased to be a major concern after this last great outbreak. The last recorded death from plague came in 1679, and it was removed as a specific category in the bills of mortality in 1703. [1] Outside London, only only 10% of parishes across England suffered a significant rise in recorded deaths in this outbreak, although several towns were affected. On this occasion it was a largely urban disease. East Anglia was badly affected, with heavy mortality in Ipswich and Norwich, and in the the South East of England. The West and parts of the Midlands were not reached by the epidemic. Overall perhaps 2% of the population died,[2]