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The Registrar-General states in the Annual Summary for 1906, that the London birthrate
(26.7 per 1,000 of the total population, of both sexes and at all ages) was the lowest recorded
in the Metropolis since civil registration was established; it was 0.3 per 1,000 below that
recorded in 1905, and was 2.3 per 1,000 below the average rate in the ten years 1896-1905. He
further states that in the year 1867 the birth-rate in London attained the highest point on record
viz., 36.5 per 1,000 persons living. Since that date the ratio has, with trifling exceptions, steadily
fallen. In 36 years the fall, calculated on the total population, amounted to 24 per cent. Based
on the proportion of births to the number of possible mothers, i.e., the total number of women
living at child-bearing ages, the fall amounted to 27 per cent, in the same period. “The
lowest fertility rates were recorded in the City of London and in the City of Westminster, Hampstead,
Stoke Newington, St. Marylebone, Holborn, and Kensington.” The observations of
the Registrar-General on this subject derive additional interest from the fact that, for the first
time, an attempt has been made to distribute to their respective districts, the births occurring
in the principal Lying-in institutions. Last year there were 1,646 births in Queen Charlotte's Hospital
alone, including 107 to Kensington mothers. The Kensington birth-rate, corrected by the addition
of these births, for the five years 1901-5, was 20.4 per 1,000 (viz., 20.9, 20.3, 20.7,20.0, and 20.0,
in the five years successively) and 19.1 per 1,000 in 1906. Calculated on the married female
population per 1,000 living, aged 15-45 years, the legitimate birth-rate in the borough—after distribution
of births in the principal Lying-in institutions in the years 1901-5, is stated to have
been 196.0, 183.4, 193.9, 186.2 and 183.9 (average 188.7), and in 1906, 176.5. In the tables at
pages 122 and 123 (appendix) the number of births, in the eleven years 1896-1906 and the birthrate,
have been corrected by the addition of births at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, the Secretary at
that institution having courteously allowed me to extract the necessary particulars from the register
Table A, Appendix II. (page 140) gives the number of births and the birth-rate for each o
the fifty-one years, 1856-1906.
DEATHS AND DEATH-RATE.
The registered deaths, inclusive of 349 of parishioners at outlying public institutions, etc.,
but exclusive of 663 of non-parishioners at public institutions, etc., within the borough, were 2,497
(males 1,172, females 1,325), and 272 below the corrected decennial average (2,769). Of these
deaths, 1,984 belong to the Town sub-district and 513 to Brompton.
The death-rate, which in the preceding three years had been 13.8, 14.2 and 14.0, per 1,000
respectively, was 13.9* in 1906. It was 1.5 below the decennial average (15.4) and 1.2 below the rate
in the Metropolis, as a whole, 15.1.
The rate in the sub-districts was : Town 15.2, Brompton 10.4 per 1,000, as compared with
15.2 and 10.9, respectively, in 1905.
The deaths in North Kensington were 1,564, and the death-rate 16.9 per 1,000.
The deaths in South Kensington were 933, and the death-rate 10.7 per 1,000.
The sex-rate (entire borough) was, males 16.7, females 12.1 per 1,000.
Localised Death-rates.—For many years the death-rate of localised portions of the
borough (including the sanitary districts), has been 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 censal
* This is the crude death-rate. The rate corrected for age and sex distribution was 14.93 per 1,000. The “true deathrate
" is set out in the table at page 10.