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7
The marriage-rate in successive periods has been as follows—

The accompanying diagram (I.) shows the marriage-rate in each year since 1850, in relation to
the mean marriage-rate of the period 1851-1909.
In the year 1909 among the males 31 per cent, married were under 21 years of age, and
among the females 11.1 per cent.; the figures for previous years are shown in the following table,
the proportions in England and Wales being also given for the purpose of comparison. It will be
seen that both in London and in England and Wales the proportion of male and female minors in
every 100 marriages has been diminishing for a. number of years:—

The decline in the marriage-rate of London is discussed in the Annual Summary of the RegistrarGeneral,
who shows that if the marriage-rate of 1909 be compared with the marriage-rate of 1870-72,
it has decreased by about 19 per cent., if based on the total population, and by 27 per cent., if based
upon the total number of marriageable persons, i.e., on the unmarried and widowed portion of the population,
aged 15 years and upwards. This latter figure, the Registrar-General states, may be said to
represent more accurately than the former the fall in the marriage-rate in the period under review.
Births.
The number of births registered in the Administrative County of London in 1909 (52 weeks)
was 116,559, giving a birth-rate of 24.2 per 1,000 persons living per annum. The steady decline in the
London birth-rate noted in previous reports has continued, and the birth-rate for 1909 is the lowest
recorded rate in London since the institution of civil registration.
The birth-rate in successive periods has been as follows:—

2057
1 See footnote (1) page 6.
b 2