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The Registrar-General states in the Annual Summary for 1907, that the London birth-rate
(25.8 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 1.0 per 1,000 below that recorded
in 1906, and was 2.8 per 1,000 below the average rate in the ten years 1897-1906. 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 37 years the fall, calculated on the total population, amounted to 27 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 30 per cent. in the same period. The highest fertility rates
were recorded in Stepney, Bethnal Green, Poplar, Shoreditch, Bermondsey, Finsbury and Southwark.
The lowest fertility rates were recorded in Hampstead, the City of Westminster, the City
of London, Holborn, Stoke Newington, St. Marylebone, Kensington, and Chelsea. The observations
of the Registrar-General on this subject derive additional interest from the fact that the births
in the principal lying-in hospitals are now distributed to their respective districts. Last year there
were 1,618 births in Queen Charlotte's Hospital alone, including 140 to Kensington mothers. The
Kensington birth-rate, corrected by the addition of these births, for the five years 1902-6 was 20 0
per 1,000 (viz., 20.3, 20.7, 20.0, 20.0, and 19 0 in the five years successively), and 19'0 per 1,000 in
1907. 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 1902-6 is stated to have been 183.4, 193.9, 186.2, 183.9, and 176.4 (average 184.7), and
in 1907, 174.2.
Table A, Appendix II. (page 108) gives the number of births and the birth-rate for each of
the fifty-two years, 1856-1907.
The Registrar-General states that "during the past 37 years, approximately 19 per cent. of
the decline in the birth-rate is due to the decrease in the proportion of married women in
the female population of conceptive ages, and over 5 per cent. is due to the decrease of illegitimacy.
With regard to the remaining 76 per cent. of the decrease there can be little doubt that
much of it is due to deliberate restriction of child-bearing."
DEATHS AND DEATH-RATE.
The registered deaths, inclusive of 351 of parishioners at outlying public institutions, etc.,
but exclusive of 704 of non-parishioners at public institutions, etc., within the borough, were 2,471
(males 1,217, females 1,254), and 259 below the corrected decennial average (2,730). Of these
deaths, 1,984 belong to the Town sub-district and 487 to Brompton.
The death-rate, which in the preceding three years had been 14.2, 14.0 and 13.9, per 1,000
respectively, was 13.7* in 1907, and the lowest on record. It was 1.4 below the decennial average
15.1) and 0.9 below the rate in the Metropolis, as a whole, 14.6.
The rates in the sub-districts were: Town 15.2, Brompton 9.8 per 1,000, as compared with
15.2 and 10.4, respectively, in 1906.
The deaths in North Kensington were 1,578, and the death-rate 17.0 per 1,000.
The deaths in South Kensington were 893, and the death-rate 10.2 per 1,000.
The sex-rates (entire borough) were, males 17.2, females 11.4 per 1,000.

The Corrected or True Death-rate.—The death-rate, 13.7 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
* This is the crude death-rate. The rate corrected for age and sex distribution was 14.8 per 1,000. The "true deathrate"
is set out in the table at page 10.