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13
[1907
of the wives were minors.
These are the lowest proportions of minors that
have been recorded since 1847 among men, and the lowest since 1848 among
women." He also gives a table from which the following figures have been
abstracted.
Periods.
Minors in 1,000 Marriages.
Husbands.
Wives.
1876-80
77.8
217.0
1881-85
73.0
215.0
1886-90
63.2
200.2
1891-95
56.2
l82.6
1896-1900
51.2
168.0
1901
49.6
159.9
1902
47.0
153.7
1903
45.7
152.3
I904
45.6
152.7
1905
43.8
146.9
1906
43.0
14.57
These figures indicate very clearly the tendency of modern times to delay
the period of marriage, which of course reacts on the birth-rate.
BIRTHS.
The births registered in Islington during 1907 numbered 8,531, and
were 894 below the average of the preceding ten years. They represented
a birth rate of 24.58 per 1,000 of the population, as compared with a mean
rate of 27.15 in the preceding ten years. The records of Islington may be
searched in vain to discover such a low birth-rate, and if that for 1906 be
excepted, one must go back sixty-five years, to 1842, to discover one approachto
it, for in that year it was 25.28 per 1,000. Since 1891, at which time
the birth-rate was 30.61, it has steadily continued to fall, until at last in 1906
the lowest point was reached, only, however to be beaten by the return for