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8
Table A, Appendix II. (page 117) gives the number of births and the birth-rate for each of
the forty-nine years, 1856-1904.
DEATHS AND DEATH-RATE.
The registered deaths, inclusive of 339 of parishioners at outlying public institutions,
etc., but exclusive of 710 of non-parishioners at public institutions, etc., within the borough,
were 2,540 (males 1,190, females 1,350), and 279 below the corrected decennial average (2,819). Of
these deaths, 2,045 were registered in the Town sub-district and 495 in Brompton.
The death-rate, which in the three preceding years had been 15·0, 15·2, and 13·8 per 1,000
respectively, was 14·2* in 1904: 1·6 below the decennial average (15·8) and 2·4 below the rate in
the Metropolis as a whole (16·6); the decennial average for the Metropolis being 18·3.
The rate in the sub-districts was: Town 15·8, Brompton 10·1 per 1,000, as compared with
15·5 and 9·3 respectively in 1903.
The deaths in North Kensington were 1,629, and the death-rate 17·7 per 1,000.
The deaths in South Kensington were 911, and the death-rate 10·5 per 1,000.
The sex-rate was, males 17·0, females 12·4 per 1,000.
Localised Death-rates.—During some recent years the death-rate of localised portions of
the borough, including the sanitary districts, was given in these reports. The rate as regarded the
sub-districts and parliamentary divisions, was calculated on the basis of the population of those areas
enumerated at quinquennial census periods, corrected yearly for increase, and was closely approximate
to the true rate. But as regarded the sanitary districts, only an estimated population and an estimated
rate could be given; the continuity of the statistics, moreover, was always liable to be disturbed
upon any change in the number of the said districts; and four changes had been made within a
few years. Having, in 1901, received from the Registrar-General a statement of the population of
the nine wards comprised in the borough, and regard being had to the improbability of any change
in their number, and to.the fact that the population of the wards will be ascertainable at five-yearly
intervals, it was thought that the value of these localised statistics would be enhanced by adopting
the ward, in place of the sanitary district, as the unit for calculation of the death-rate, and this was
done.

The Corrected or True Death-rate.—The death-rate, 14·2 per 1,000, as calculated
above, is a crude or uncorrected one, not taking cognizance of the relative numbers of the sexes,
nor of the age-composition of the population. Correction for these data involves addition to, or
subtraction from, the "recorded death-rate," as compared with the "standard death-rate."t The
necessity for such correction is obvious, having regard to the great excess of females in the population,
and to the lower death-rate in the female sex as compared with the rate in the male sex.
That excess in 1904 was approximately 38,870. The deaths among the 69,815 males were 1,190
and those among the 108,685 females 1,350. The crude death-rate in the male sex was 17·0, as
compared with the rate of 12·4 in the female sex. It is obvious, therefore, that if the numbers of the
sexes had been equal the death-rate would have been higher than the recorded rate. The RegistrarGeneral,
in his annual summary, gives the "factor for correction for sex and age-distribution" in each
of the Metropolitan Boroughs Corrected after the manner indicated, the death-rate of Kensington
in 1904 becomes, instead of 14·2, about 15·4 per 1,000; and the rate for London, as a whole, about
17·5 instead of 16·6. The "true" death-rate is that which shows the mortality per 1,000 living
of each sex at different age-periods, and this is shown in the subjoined table:—
*This is the crude death-rate. The rate corrected for age and sex-distribution was 15·4 per 1,000. The "true deathrate"
is set out in the table at page 9.
†"The standard death-rate signifies the death-rate at all ages, calculated on the hypothesis that the rates for each sex
at each of twelve age-periods in each town were the same as in England and Wales, during the 10 years 1891-1900, the rate at
all ages in England and Wales during that period having been 18 21 per 1,000." (Registrar-General's Annual Summary).