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10 Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
reduction having occurred in Putney where the rate is 5.04 under
this average. In Tooting, however, the rate is 5.68 above this
average, while in the whole Borough the rate is 2.73 under it.
The rate for the Borough is the lowest recorded, being .90
per 1,000 under the rate for last year.
The birth-rate for London was 26.6 per 1,000, compared with
27.02 in 1905, 27.81 in 1904, and 28.95 the decennial average,
while for England and Wales the rate was 27.0 per 1,000, compared
with 27.2 in 1905, 27.9 in 1904, and 28.68 the decennial
average.
These rates show that the birth-rate has decreased more
rapidly in this Borough than in London as a whole.
There is, of course, one fallacy which must be mentioned,
viz.:—that the rates for this Borough are calculated on an estimated
population higher than the actual.
The rate of natural increase, or the excess of births over
deaths, was 11.59 per 1,000, compared with 12.50 in 1905, and
13.28 in 1904. This rate was lowest in Putney, viz.:—6.44, and
highest in Tooting, viz.:—21.95.
As stated in the Report for 1905, the diminution in the birthrate
is real, and may be shown by comparing the births per 1,000
married females at ages 15-45.
In 1901 this rate was 21.5 per cent.; in 1904, 21.0; in 1905,
19.4; and in 1906 it was only 18.3.
In London as a whole this percentage was in 1901-3, 23.4;
in 1904, 22.8; and in 1905, 21.9.
The Registrar General in his report for London for 1905 with
regard to the decline in the birth-rate, says: "There are sufficient
grounds for stating that approximately about .21 per cent. of the
birth-rate (calculated on the female population 15-45 years) in
London during the past 35 years, is due to the decrease in the
proportion of married women in the female population of conceptive
ages; about .6 per cent. is due to the decrease of illegitimacy;