Government's latest census shows.

The large drop was despite an eight percent rise in the Island's population.

The parishes of Southampton, Hamilton and Smith's are the Island's fastest-growing, the census showed.

A Government official in the census department said redevelopment within the Corporation boundaries had replaced housing with office space.

In 1991, there were 1,100 people living in the City of Hamilton, down from 1,617 in 1980.

During the same period, Southampton swelled by 26 percent, to 5,804 residents from 4,613. Hamilton Parish grew by nearly 1,000, to 4,680 residents, for an increase of 24 percent. And Smith's grew by 18 percent, to 5,261 residents from 4,463.

The shrinkage in the City of Hamilton contributed to a five percent drop in the population of Pembroke Parish, which fell to 11,507 residents from 12,060 in 1980. Despite that, Pembroke remained the most densely populated parish, at 5,454 persons per square mile.

Pembroke's density dropped from 5,716 persons per square mile in 1980. Mr.

Roger Sherratt, secretary of the corporation, said he wanted to check before commenting on the reasons for the population decline.

New census figures showing wide wage disparity between blacks and whites should be interpreted cautiously, a Government official said yesterday.

The figures do not lie, but must be carefully interpreted, the official in the census department told The Royal Gazette .

Households headed by Bermudian whites had a median income of $63,660 in 1990, compared to a median income of $48,204 in households headed by Bermudian blacks. That is a gap of 32 percent.

In households headed by non-Bermudians, the median income was $56,376 for whites and $51,204 for blacks. That is a 10.1 percent disparity.

Even after a breakdown by occupation groups, wide wage disparity between blacks and whites showed in the census.

Households in which the Bermudian head was black and worked in professional, technical, and related fields had a median income of $60,996 in 1990, compared to $70,500 in households headed by a Bermudian white working in the same field.

In administrative and managerial posts, the median annual household income was $64,176 when headed by a black Bermudian and $74,352 when headed by a white Bermudian.

In clerical jobs, the median income was $33,228 for blacks and $49,500 for whites. In sales, the figures were $39,000 and $57,000, in services $38,256 and $58,500, and in production, transport, and related fields households headed by black Bermudians earned $51,984, compared to $54,300 for households headed by Bermudian whites.

The figures could be partly influenced by a larger proportion of single-parent households and households headed by women in the black population, the official said. Age and education are other variables which could influence the numbers, he said.

The census department is working on a detailed report on household income in Bermuda which will also address some of these questions, the official said. It should be published before the end of the year, he said.

The most recent census is the first to include a section on income. The income question was given to a random sample of one in seven households, and a 98 percent response rate was achieved.