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8
The Area of the district is 3,890 acres and the density of
population, or the average number of persons per acre, is 14.2.
This figure is calculated on the gross population, which includes the
average populations of the Strand and Edmonton Union Workhouses,
and amounts to 55,322.
The natural increase of the population by the excess of births
over deaths during the year was 1,046.
BIRTHS.
The number of births registered was 1,891, which includes 55
births that took place in the union workhouses, 16 of which were
among parents belonging to Edmonton. Hitherto, it has been the
custom, in estimating the birth rate, to exclude all births taking
place in the workhouses, except those of children born of Edmonton
parents. By employing this modification, the number of births is
found to be 1,852, and the birth rate 34.7 as compared with 35.4 in
1903. The more general custom is, however, to take as the births
of a district all those that have been registered as occurring in it
during the year. I purpose in future, therefore, to make my calculation
from the total number of births registered.
The birth rate arrived at in this way is 35.4 per 1,000 inhabitants.
Of the total births, 75 or 3.96 per cent., were illegitimate.
In the country generally the birth rate has been steadily declining
for some years past, and in 1904 it reached the lowest figure yet
recorded, 27.9. Whatever may be the causes for this regrettable
decrease, they do not seem to obtain in Edmonton, where the birth
rate for the past six years has been maintained at a high figure, and
for 1904 was among the highest in the country. The birth rates for
the preceding 10 years will be found on Table I., page 47.
The births were distributed in the Wards as follows :—