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So large a number of marriages had never before taken place in
Kensington, and the yearly increase, trifling as it was in recent
years, had not been steady or even constant, as may be seen on
referring to Table I (Appendix). Nevertheless, the marriage rate
in Kensington—i.e., persons married per 1,000 of the population—
21.6 in 1881—was considerably above that of the country
generally, viz., 15.1 per 1,000, or 1.0 below the mean annual rate
during the ten years 1871-80. The marriage rate in the Metropolis
in 1881 was 18 per 1,000 inhabitants, "than which," says
the Registrar-General, "there is no lower on record." Despite
the high marriage rate in Kensington, the birth rate, as we shall
see, is a low and a decreasing one, resulting in a large measure,
doubtless, from that disproportion in the relative numbers of the
sexes to which reference has already been made.
BIRTHS AND BIRTH RATE.
The births of 4,400 children were registered in 1881: males,
2,289, and females, 2,111; 3,547 in the Town sub-district, and
853 in Brompton, the total being 205 fewer than in 1880—the
decrease being entirely in the Town sub-district—and 604 below
the decennial average, corrected for population. The birth rate was
only 26.9 per 1,000: 29.5 in the Town sub-district, and 20.0 in
Brompton, being 7.8 per 1,000 below that of the Metropolis
generally (34.7), and 7.0 per 1,000 below that of all England and
Wales (33.9)
We have to go back to 1874—estimated population 138,616
for so small a number of births as in the year 1881, when the
population (163,540), was some 25,000 higher than in 1874.
There was one birth to every 37.1 persons living, and 108.4 male
births to 100 of females, an unusually large proportion: in the
Metropolis the male births were 103.4 to 100 females. The
illegitimate births were 198: males, 113; females, 85, and of
these 181 took place in the Town sub-district, which includes the
parish workhouse, at which institution, out of a total of 129 births
males 70, and females 59—107 were illegitimate. The illegitimate
births, whole parish, were 4.5 per cent. of total births.