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births.
The 3,152 births registered in the Borough included 134 of illegitimate children (80 of
boys and 54 of girls), 24 of whom were born of non-resident parents. Outside the Borough
21 such births occurred, which have to be added to the number for the Borough, making a
nett total of 131 children, equal to 3.98 (say, 4) per cent. of the total births. In 1905 the
percentage was 6.l, and the mean proportion for the five years, 1901-05, 5.6. The highest
proportion in any Ward was 6.5 in Hyde Park, and the lowest 1.4 in Harrow Road and
Lancaster Gate (East) Wards. (See Table 2.)

The numbers of births and corresponding rates in the Metropolis, the Borough and the
circumjacent districts are given in Table 3. In England and Wales the rate last year was
27.0 per 1,000 persons, 0.2 below that for 1905, 1.7 below the decennial mean rate and the
lowest rate on record.
Visits were made to 2,376 homes after the birth of children by the Women Inspectors
and students, principally the latter. At 72 houses the name of the family sought was
unknown, and 109 families had gone away when the first call was made.* The actual
number of births in connection with which satisfactory data were collected was 2,101.
From the information elicited, it appears that the total number of children born to the
2,101 families was 5,491, an average of 2.0 per family. Of the children whose births led to
the visits during the year, 429, or nearly 22 per cent., were first-born—a fact which is of
some interest, as any information assimilated by the parents on the occasion of the first child
is likely to produce good results on future occasions. Of the 5,029 children whose births
antedated last year, 947 were found to have died, equal to 18.8 per cent. Attempts were
made to ascertain the causes of death, but the results appear to be too uncertain to justify
inclusion here.
* In 15 instances only were the visits declined.