View report page

18
births.
BIRTHS.
Natality, Fertility.
The statistical year 1913 contained 53 weeks, a fact which renders the comparison of the
numbers of events recorded in 1913 with those in 1912 fallacious, unless a mental correction (in
the ratio of 52/53) be performed. It has also made it necessary that all the rates calculated on
the totals for the 53 weeks should be adjusted to render them comparable with the records of
years of 52 weeks. Such adjustment has been made throughout, the result being that a rate
equal to unity on the unadjusted total (53 weeks) is reduced to one of 0.983.
During the year 2,832 births (1,429 of males and 1,403 of females) were registered in the
Borough. For the reason given above the annual totals for previous years are omitted from
this paragraph. They are, however, to be found in Table I. in the Appendix. The crude birthrate,
duly adjusted, was 19.58 per 1,000 persons, as compared with one of 19.48 in 1912, and an
average for the five years (1908.12) of 20.31. Multiple births last year numbered 45 (all of
twins), the same as in 1912, but half as many again as in 1911. In 15 instances both the twins
were males, in 11 both females, and in the remaining 19 the sexes were mixed. One of the last
group was born to non.resident parents. There were 80 births in the Lying.in Wards of the
Workhouse, equal to 2.8 per cent. of the total births in the Borough, as compared with 3 .2
per cent. in 1912, 3.8 in 1911, and 2.8 in 1910.
The births registered locally included those of 58 children born to non.resident parents,
16 of the children (8 of each sex) being born in the Workhouse. The inward transfers received
at the end of the year from the Registrar.General numbered 242, 133 being births of males and
190 of females. The places where such births occurred are sufficiently indicated below.

The corrected total of births during the year was 3,019, comprising 1,540 of males and
1,479 of females. The numbers of the births, after correction, to be allocated to the different
Wards are shown in Table 15. The corrected birth.rate for the year was 20.87 per 1,000
persons, as compared with a rate of 21.18 in 1911, and an average (1908.12) of 21.47. (See
Table I., Appendix.) The rates recorded last year in Harrow Road and Church Wards were
higher than those recorded in 1912, and in the latter Ward last year.s rate was in excess of the
average for the preceding five years. In Table II., Appendix, the births allocated to each Ward
during the six years 1908.13 are set out.
For the purposes of comparison with the rates of adjacent districts, the data have been
specially extracted from the Quarterly Reports of the Registrar.General. It was only by the
use of the uncorrected totals . obtained from those Reports that a comparable series for the years
1908.13 could be obtained. Hence the figures given in Table 16 do not agree with those
published in the tables for the year included in the Registrar.General.s Report for the fourth
quarter of last year. It will be seen from Table 16 that the rate for the Borough (I9 60)
was exceeded only by the rates for the whole County (24.71) and for Willesden (24.01). The
. In the case of St. Marylebone the corrected total has always been used on account of the great excess of
non.resident births taking place in Queen Charlotte.s Lying.in Hospital registered in the Borough.