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8
MARRIAGES AND MARRIAGE-RATE.
The marriages in the year were 1,651, compared with 1,648, 1,693, and 1,543 in the three
preceding years respectively. Of these marriages there were celebrated—
By the Church (71.5% of total marriages) 1,180
At Roman Catholic places of worship 116
At other Nonconformist places of worship 56
At the Superintendent-Registrar's office 299
The marriage-rate (i.e., the number of persons married to 1,000 living) was 18'7, compared
with 19.2, 19.6, and 17.8 in the three preceding years. The marriage-rate in England and Wales
was 15.9 per 1,000, compared with 16.2, 16.4, and 15.9, in the three preceding years. The rate in
London was 17.6 per 1,000, compared with 18.8, 18.6, and 180, in the three preceding years. The
general decline in the marriage-rate may not unreasonably be attributed to the war and, possibly, to
the attendant increase of taxation.
During the ten years, April 1st, 1891, to March 31st, 1901, the inter-censal period, 15,822
marriages were registered in the borough.
Table A, Appendix II. (page 122), gives the number of marriages and the marriage-rate in the
borough for each of the thirty-one years (1871-1901) during my tenure of office:
BIRTHS AND BIRTH-RATE.
The births registered were 3,602, viz., males, 1,840, and females, 1,762; the numbers being,
in the Town sub-district (which includes the Borough Infirmary), 3,046, and in the Brompton
sub-district, 556. The births were 221 below the corrected decennial average (3,823), 164 of them
being of illegitimate children. The births were 16 more than in 1900, but they were fewer by
439 than the number in 1872 (4,041), when the population (127,400) was 49,600 less than in 1901.
The birth-rate, which of late years has been always considerably below that of London as a whole
(29'0 in 1901),* has been declining since 1868, in which year it was 33.1 per 1,000 persons living.
In 1901 it was 20'4 per 1,000, and was 1.2 below the decennial average (21.6). The rate in the
sub-districts was:—Town, 23.7, and Brompton, 11.4 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
2,576, and the birth-rate 28.2 per 1,000 living, or 0.8 below the metropolitan rate. The
births in South Kensingion, i.e., the part of the borough south of those streets, were 1,026, and
the birth-rate 11.9 per 1,000, or 171 below the metropolitan rate. The birth-rate in the several
wards, after distribution of the births at the Borough Infirmary, was as follows: —
St: Charles 587 births, or 26.7 per 1,000 persons living.
Golborne 941 births, or 35.7 per 1,000 persons living.
Norland 624 births, or 26.5 per 1,000 persons living.
Pembridge 424 births, or 21.9 per 1,000 persons living.
Holland 266 births, or 13.0 per 1,000 persons living.
Earl's Court 216 births, or 119 per 1,000 persons living.
Queen's Gate 125 births, or 8.7 per 1,000 persons living.
Redcliffe 251 births, or 13.4 per 1,000 persons living.
Brompton 168 births, or 11.8 per 1,000 persons living.
The births in the borough exceeded the deaths by 952. In the Town sub-district the
births were 854 more in number than the deaths ; in the Brompton sub-district 98, without correction
for births at the infirmary. In North Kensington the births exceeded the deaths by 807;
in South Kensington to the number of 145 only. The excess of births over deaths in the several
wards was as follows : —
St. Charles 201 Holland 19
North Golborne 392 Earl,s Court 2
Kensington Norland 97 Kensington Queen·sGate 9
Pembridge 117 Redcliffe 71
Brompton 44
807 145
The registered births of illegitimate children in the borough as a whole, were, as already
stated, 164 (19 fewer than in 1900), viz., males, 88, and females, 76. Of these births 146 were
registered in the Town sub-district, which includes the workhouse, at which institution out of 132
births (males, 72; females, 60) 91 were illegitimate. In the borough, generally, the illegitimate
births formed 4.6 per cent, of total births, as compared with rates of 5.0, 5.3, and 5.1, in the three
preceding years.
* This is the lowest London birth-rate as yet recorded.