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of births belonging to Hampstead is found to be 1,273 as compared with
1,325 in 1913—a decrease of 52, and, in accordance with the practice of
the Registrar-General, I have taken this number as a basis for the
various rates that depend on the number of births occurring during the
year.
Still-Births.
Still-births are required to be notified to Medical Officers of Health
under the provisions of the Notification of Births Act, 1907. This Act
applies to any child born after the expiration of the twenty-eighth
week of pregnancy, whether alive or dead.
Calculated on the total number of births notified, the still-births
for the year 1914 represent a percentage of 2.4. The actual numbers
of still-births notified in each year since 1909 are as follows:—1909,
28; 1910,21; 1911,25; 1912,28; 1913,23; 1914,24.
At present, still-births are not required by law to be registered, as
is the case with the births of children born alive.
Birth-Rate.
Calculated on the number of births registered in the Borough the
birth-rate was 14.0 per 1000 of the population, as compared with the
rate of 14.3 per 1000 in 1913. But when the birth-rate is calculated
on the total number of births belonging to Hampstead, including those
that took place without as well as within the Borough, and excluding
those taking place in the Borough, but belonging to other districts, the
rate is found to be 14.7, as compared with the rate of 15.0 in 1913, and
15.2, the average for the years 1909-1913.
This rate of 14.7 is the lowest ever recorded in Hampstead, the next
lowest being that for the years 1911 and 1912, when the rate was 14.9.
The highest birth-rate recorded in Hampstead was in the year
1878, when the rate was 24.5. Since then the rate has steadily
declined. In England and Wales there has also been a marked
reduction in the birth-rate, but the Hampstead figures show a greater
proportionate decline, notwithstanding the fact that the marriage rate
has not declined in recent years, but has remained constant up to 1913
at about 15 per 1000.