View report page

The marriage-rate (i.e., the number of persons married to 1,000 living) was 17.8, as compared
with 197, 19.2 and 19.6 in the three preceding years. The marriage-rate in England and Wales
was 16.2 per 1,000, as compared with 16.0, 162 and 16.5 in the three preceding years. The rate
in London was 17.6 per 1,000, as compared with 18.5, 18.7, and 18.4 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. Table A, Appendix I (page 84) gives the number
of marriages and the marriage-rate in the borough for each of the thirty years (1871-1900) during
my tenure of office.
BIRTHS AND BIRTH-RATE.
The births registered were 3,586, viz., males 1,770, and females 1,816, the numbers being,
in the Town sub-district (which includes the borough infirmary) 3,021, and in the Brompton subdistrict
565. The births were 199 below the corrected decennial average (3,785), 183 of them being
of illegitimate children. The births were 4 fewer than in 1899; they were also fewer by 455 than
the number in 1872 (4,041), when the population (127,400) was 45,600 less than in 1900. The
birth-rate, which of late years has been always considerably below that of London as a whole,
(28.6 in 1900, and the lowest hitherto recorded), has been declining since 1868, in which year it
was 33.1 per 1,000 persons living. In 1900 it was 20.7 per 1,000, and 1.1 below the decennial
average (21.8). The rate in the sub-districts was: Town, 24.3, and Brompton, 11.6 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 2,543, and the birth-rate 28.9 per 1,000 persons living, and 0.3
above the metropolitan rate. The births in South Kensington, i.e., the part of the borough south
of those streets, were 1,043, and the birth-rate 12.3 per 1000, and 16.3 below the metropolitan rate.
The birth-rate in the several sanitary districts, after distribution of the births at the borough
infirmary, was as follows:—
North .1,036 births, or 30.8 per 1,000 persons living.
North-east 620 births, or 20.3 per 1,000 persons living.
North-west 607 births, or 35'7 per 1,000 persons living.
Central 545 births, or 19 9 per 1,000 persons living.
South-east 351 births, or 10.9 per 1,000 persons living.
South-west 427 births, or 13.3 per 1,000 persons living.
The high birth-rate in the North-west district is suggestive of an under-estimate of the population,
which, however, is based upon the census taken in March, 1896.
The births in the entire borough exceeded the deaths by 888. In the Town sub-district, the
births were 828 more in number than the deaths; in the Brompton sub-district 60, without
correction for births at the infirmary. In North Kensington the births exceeded the deaths by 832;
in South Kensington to the number of 56 only. The excess of births over deaths in the
several sanitary districts was as follows: In the North, 452; the North-east, 201; the
North-west, 103; the Central, 85; the South-east, 50. In the South-west district the deaths
exceeded the births to the number of three.
The registered births of illegitimate children in the borough, as a whole, were, as already
stated, 183 (8 fewer than in 1899), viz., males 91, and females 92. Of these births 168 were
registered in the Town sub-district, which includes the workhouse; at which institution out of 125
births, 84 were illegitimate. In the borough, generally, the illegitimate births formed 5.l per cent.
of total births, as compared with rates of 5.3, 5.0, 5.3 in the three preceding years.