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The birth-rate is estimated to have been 26.4 per 1,000 of an estimated population, which includes
Londoners on active service during the year; this compares with the corresponding rate of 18.2 per 1,000
in 1919 and 16.0 in 1918. The excess in births during last year does not suffice to make good more than
about 10 per cent. of the decline during war-time. In the 13 weeks ended 2nd April, 1921, there were
26,170 births in London, this giving a birth rate of only 23.1 per 1,000; the birth rate for the whole
year is generally lower than in the first quarter.
Deaths.
The deaths among the civil population of London during 1920 numbered 57,232, as compared with
59,114 in 1919. The Registrar-General gives the death rate as 12.6, which is the lowest rate recorded
in London since the introduction of registration. In addition to the deaths among civilians there was
a certain number among Londoners on active service, but this was relatively small, judging by the
figures for the whole of England and Wales.

The death rate among infants under one year of age was 76 per 1,000 births, as compared with
85 in 1919. Climatic conditions have much to do with variations in infant mortality from year to
year, and some part of the decrease in the rate of 1920 upon that of 1919 is attributable to the combination
of a mild winter and a moderate summer temperature, resulting in a low winter mortality
from respiratory diseases and a summer mortality from diarrhoea much below the average. The influence
of favourable summer and winter weather does not however suffice to account for the marked reduction
in the infant death rate of the past two years. It may be noted that the infant mortality attained
the lowest recorded figure in a year of high birth rate. There is, generally speaking, a relation between
the birth-rate and the infant mortality rate, both showing a tendency to vary together, so that districts
with a high birth rate have a high mortality, and vice versa. Thus the low birth-rate in the betterclass
districts of London is accompanied by a low mortality, while populations of the poorer class maintain
a high birth rate and high mortality. During the war, the number of confinements has been greatly
reduced, and this fact in itself must have affected the rate of infant mortality. Further, notwithstanding
the adverse conditions, much progress was made during the war in the assistance and supervision of
expectant and nursing mothers and their infants, the scope of the maternity and child welfare work
being now so widened and general as to show its effect upon the vital statistics of the total population.