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
Kensington 1906
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1906
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7
BIRTHS AND BIRTH-RATE.
The births registered, including 107 that occurred at Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital,
were 3,428 : Males 1752, Females 1676: in the Town sub-district (which includes the Borough
Infirmary) 2912, and in the Brompton sub-district 516.
The male births were to the female births in the proportion of 1,045 to 1,000.
The births were 245 below the corrected decennial average number (3,673),and also fewer by
151 than in the year 1905; and by 613 than in the year 1872 (4,041), when the population
(127,600) was 51,900 less than in 1906; 158 of them were illegitimate.
Ttie birth rate, which of late years has always been considerably below that of London
(26.7 in 1906) has been declining since 1868, in which year it was 33.1 per 1,000 persons living.
In 1906 it was 19.1 per 1,000, and 2.0 below the decennial average (21.1), and the lowest on
record.
The rate in the sub-districts was:—Town 22.4; Brompton 10.4 per 1,000.
The births in North Kensington, i.e., the part of the Borough north of Holland park-avenue
and High-street, Notting-hill, were 2,429; the birth-rate 26.2 per 1,000 living, and 0.5 below
the metropolitan rate.
The births in South Kensington, i.e., the part of the borough south of the streets named,
were 999; the birth-rate 11.5, and 15.2 per 1,000 below the metropolitan rate.
The birth-rate in the several wards—after distribution of the births at the borough infirmary, and at Queen Charlotte's Hospital—was as follows:—
| North Kensington— | per 1,000 persons living. | |
| St. Charles | 637 births = 28.6 | |
| Golborne | 884 births = 33.0 | |
| Norland | 587 births = 24.6 | |
| Pembridge | 321 births = 16.3 | |
| South Kensington— | ||
| Holland | 286 births = 13.8 | |
| Earl's Court | 229 births = 12.5 | |
| Queen's Gate | 118 births = 8.1 | |
| Redcliffe | 232 births = 12.2 | |
| Brompton | 134 births = 9.3 | |
The births exceeded the deaths by 931: in the Town sub-district they were 928 more in
number than the deaths, whilst in the Brompton sub-district the births exceeded the deaths to the
number of 3 only.
In North Kensington the births exceeded the deaths by 865; in South Kensington to the
number of 66 only.
The excess of births over deaths in the several wards was as follows:—
| North Kensington. | St. Charles | 250 | South Kensington. | Holland | 34 |
| Golborne | 447 | Queen’s Gate | 12 | ||
| Norland | 127 | Redcliffe | 31 | ||
| Pembridge | 41 |
The deaths exceeded the births by 5 in Earl’s Court Ward, and by 6 in Brompton Ward.
The registered births ot illegitimate children in the borough, as a whole, were 158—one more
than in 1905. Of these births 143 were registered in the Town sub-district, which includes the
workhouse, at which institution out of 102 live births (males 55, females 47) 27 were illegitimate.
In the borough generally the illegitimate births formed 4.8 per cent, of total births, as compared
with rates of 4.2, 4.5, and 4.5, in the preceding three years.