London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Marylebone 1907
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Marylebone, Metropolitan Borough]
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14
The position of England and Wales shown in this report is
by no means an enviable one. The Registrar.General in
searching for the reason of such wide discrepancies among the
crude birth-rates in the various countries enumerated, states that
they are due to some extent to variations in the civil condition,
and the sex and age constitution of the several populations. He
indicates, however, one of the most important reasons of this
decline in the table which he has constructed from certain
countries from which the requisite data were obtainable and from
which again the invidious position of England and Wales is
clearly apparent. Coupled with this we have in both tables the
very alarming fact that the decline in the crude birth-rate and
the decrease in fertility of married women is even more strikingly
noticeable in the most important British Colony— the Australian
Commonwealth.
LEGITIMATE BIRTH RATES.
| Countries. (Arranged in order of rates in 1900—02.) | Proportion of Legitimate Births per 1,000 wives aged 15—45 years | Increase ( + ) or Decrease (—) per cent in Fertility during 20 years. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approximate periods. | |||||
| 1880—82 | 1800—92 | 1900—02 | |||
| European Countries. The Netherlands | 347.5 | 338.8 | 315.3 | - | 9.3 |
| Norway | 314.5 | 306.8 | 302.8 | — | 3.7 |
| Prussia | 312.6 | 307.6 | 290.4 | — | 7.1 |
| Ireland | 282.9 | 287.6 | 289.4 | + | 2.3 |
| German Empire | 310.2 | 300.9 | 284.2 | — | 8.4 |
| Austria | 281.4 | 292.4 | 283.7 | + | 0.8 |
| Scotland | 311.5 | 296.4 | 271.8 | — | 12.7 |
| Italy | 276.2 | ? | 269.4 | - | 2.5 |
| Sweden | 293.0 | 280.0 | 269.0 | — | 8.2 |
| Switzerland | 284.1 | 274.0 | 265.9 | — | 6.4 |
| Denmark | 287.1 | 278.1 | 259.1 | — | 9.8 |
| Spain | 257.7 | 263.9 | 258.7 | + | 0.4 |
| Belgium | 312.7 | 285.1 | 250.7 | - | 19.8 |
| ENGLAND & WALES | 286.0 | 263. 8 | 235.5 | - | 17.7 |
| France | 196.2 | 173.5 | 157.5 | — | 19.7 |
| Australian Commonwealth. Tasmania | ? | 311.0 | 256.4 | - | ? |
| Queensland | 329.0 | 320.6 | 252.8 | — | 23.2 |
| Western Australia* | 323.9 | 338.8 | 246.4 | — | 23.9 |
| South Australia | 326.5 | 307.5 | 235.0 | - | 28.0 |
| New South Wales | 337.8 | 298.5 | 234.3 | - | 30.6 |
| Victoria | 299.2 | 297.8 | 226.8 | — | 24.2 |
| New Zealand | 322.1 | 277.5 | 243.2 | - | 24.5 |
| *The legitimate births in Western Australia are not precisely known, but are estimated to be 95 per cent. of the total births. | |||||