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15
Illegitimate Births.—Out of the total of 1282 births registered in
Hampstead, 43 or 33 per 1000, were those of illegitimate children.
Birth-rate.
The Birth rate calculated on the number of births registered m
the Borough was 13•6 per 1000 of the population, as compared with the
rate of 14•4 per 1000 in 1908, and 17•0, the average for the years
1899—1908. But when the birth-rate is calculated on the total number
of births belonging to Hampstead, including those that took place
without as well as within the Borough, the rate is found to be 13•9.
This is the lowest birth-rate ever recorded in Hampstead, the lowest rate
in any previous year being 14•7 in 1907.

The Table on page 127 shows the birth-rates for Hampstead as
compared with those for England and Wales since 1875, and it will be
noted that the rates show a steady decline.
The registration of births was first made compulsory in this
country by the Births and Deaths Act, 1874, which came into operation
in 1875. The year 1875 may, therefore, be regarded as the first year
for which we possess complete birth statistics, and the birth-rate in that
year in England and Wales was 35•4, and in Hampstead 22•6. In the
following year, 1876, the birth-rate in England and Wales was the
highest on record, viz.: 36•3, while in Hampstead the rate was 24•4,—a
higher rate than has ever been recorded in Hampstead in one year
except 1878, when the rate was 24•5. The birth-rate in England and
Wales has fallen steadily from 36•3 in 1876 to 25•6 in 1909,—a decline
of 29•5 per cent, in thirty-three years; while in Hampstead there has
been a similar fall, except for the slight rise in 1878, from 24•4 in 1876