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12
BIRTH RATE.
The births registered during the year were 4,818, and are equal
to a rate of 37.3 per thousand population at all ages. At first sight
this rate appears slightly lower than that of the preceding year,
which was recorded as 37 7 for a registration year of fifty.three
weeks; but both years have an identical rate for a year of fifty.two
weeks.
The birth rate of Bethnal Green is seven-and-a-balf per thousand
in excess of the general metropolitan rate, which is 30.0.
A calculation, based upon the estimated population of women
living in Bethnal Green between the ages of 15 and 45, gives a
birth rate of 158"8 per thousand, against 114.2 for the whole of
London, calculated in a similar manner.
The birth rates in the sub.districts are shown in the table below 'f
the death rate in each is also given for purposes of comparison:—
It is often asserted that a high birth rate necessarily entails a
correspondingly high death rate. That this statement is incorrect
is exemplified by a comparison of the rates in the North and South
sub.districts; for though the birth rate in the North is slightly
higher than that in the South, yet the death rate in the South
exceeds that in the North by nearly three per thousand.
As a matter of fact, the vital and mortal statistics of any large
community are greatly influenced by the proportion of healthy
people between the ages of 15 and 45 living amongst them. A
population composed of such persons, with the sexes in due proportion,
might be trusted to show, for a series of years, enormous
birth rates, with a very low mortality. About 17 per cent, of the
children born would probably die within a year of their birth,
though (even under unfavourable conditions) a large proportion of
the remainder would survive and increase the population of children
Sub-district.
North
South
East
Birth Rate- Death Rate.
39.7 20.83
39.0 23.48
33.7 20.36