View report page

6
3,439 to 3,343, which is a little less than 28 per
1,000; the deaths from 3,018 to 2,845, which is
nearly 58 in the 1,000; and the marriages from
1,750 to 1,557 which is nearly 111 in the 1,000.
The distribution of the several numbers among
the population is as follows:—There were 29
births, 24 deaths, and 14 marriages to every 1,000
of the inhabitants. In the whole of London there
are about 33 births, 24.4 deaths, and hardly 10
marriages to the 1,000; and in all England the
proportions are 34 births, 224 deaths, and only
8 marriages. That which is most remarkable,
therefore, in the City is the large proportion of
marriages and the small proportion of births. This
would indicate either that there is a great defect in
the registration of births, or that the married do
not commonly remain in the City, or that marriages
are not prolific. There is no other way of accounting
for the remarkable fact, that while in all England
there are annually rather more than four
births to every marriage, in the City there are but
two. Independently, therefore, of the excessive
mortality of the City, there are fewer births to
keep up the number of the population ; and if it
were not for the constant importation or accession
of adult life, the growth of this metropolis would
be but slow. Its natural rate of increase, as estimated
by the excess of births over deaths in the
City for the last ten years, would be only about