London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1904
Forty-ninth annual report on the health and sanitary condition of the Borough of Islington
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21
[1904
From these figures it can be discerned plainly that the method of calculating the birth rate on the total population does not give a true idea of the great falling off that has taken place in the number of children born annually.
| PERIOD. | BIRTHS. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calculated on Total Population at all ages. | Calculated on Female Population aged 15-45 | ||||
| Rate per 1,000. | Compared with rate in 1880-2 taken at 100. | Rate per 1,000. | Compared with rate in 1880-2 taken as 100. | ||
| 1880-2 | 35.13 | 100 | 133.1 | 100 | |
| 1890-2 | 29.92 | 85 | 113.4 | 85 | |
| 1900-2 | 27.59 | 79 | 102.3 | 77 | |
| 1903 | 26.48 | 75 | 98.2 | 74 | |
| 19°4 | 2606 | 74 | 967 | 73 | |
It should be stated that a number of women living in this borough, are
confined in public institutions outside its bounds, particularly in the City of
London Lying-in Hospital, Finsbury, and that consequently the Islington
birth rate suffers slightly. It is much to be regretted that some measures are
not adopted to correct the birth rate similar to those that now obtain with
respect to the death rate,
Illegitimate Births.—These numbered 273, which was the largest
number registered since 1899 when the return was 279. Since 1891, when
compared with former years there has been a decrease in these births. From
1851 to 1860 the average was 135 per annum, in the next decade, 1861-70, it
was 261, in the decade 1871-80, 342, and from 1881 to 1890 347, since which
period the average number of illegitimate births has been 247.