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1904]
14
MARRIAGES.
The number of persons married in 1904 was 5,896 as compared with 6,106
in the preceding year, and with 5,985, the average for the ten years
1894-1903.
The marriage rate was 17.29 per 1,000 inhabitants as against 18.00 in 1903
and with the decennial rate of 17.81.
The rate now recorded is the lowest since 1895, when the proportion of
persons married was only 15.97 per 1,000 of the population.
The Registrar-General in his report for 1903 points out that the total
population is not a satisfactory standard by which to measure the rate of
marriage; and that a better standard is obtained by eliminating the married
persons from the population, and by calculating the rates on the unmarried and
widowed portion of the population aged 15 years and upwards, and so dealing
with only that section of the people in which marriage takes place.
This proposition is of course self-evident, for it is absurd to include infants
and children in the basis of calculation, whose numbers vary considerably in
various communities, and who, of course, are not eligible for marriage. It is
unfortunate that the figures with respect to the borough are not easily ascertainable,
and, therefore, it is impossible to show what the marriage rates would
be if calculated on the basis suggested by him.