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84
MARRIAGES AND MARRIAGE RATE.
The marriages in 1886 were 1,605 and 125 more than in
1885. Of these there were celebrated—
By the Church (76'9 per cent, of total marriages) . 1,235
At Roman Catholic places of worship 127
At other Nonconformist places of worship 64
At the Superintendent Registrar's Office 179
Total 1,605
The marriage rate, i.e., persons married to 1,000 inhabitants,
was 18.5. The marriage rate in the country generally was 14.1
per 1,000, and showed a further decline from the steadily decreasing
rates in the four preceding years: it was 1.1 below the
mean annual rate in the ten years, 1876.85, and was lower than
the rate recorded in any year since 1837. The marriage rate in
London was 16.6, the lowest rate as yet recorded; the three next
lowest, moreover, being those recorded in the three immediately
preceding years, 1883.4.5, in which the rates were successively
17.9, 17.6, and 16.9.
BIRTHS AND BIRTH RATE.
The births registered in 1886 were 4,149—males, 2,137,
and females, 2,112; in the Town sub.district, 3,378, and in the
Brompton sub.district, 771. The births in 1885 were 4,032, or
117 below the number last year, in which the births, 670 below
the decennial average corrected for increase of population, were
fewer by 33 than in 1873, when the population was smaller by
47,000 than in 1886. The birth rate in Kensington, considerably
lower than the London rate (32'3), and that of England and
Wales (32.4), has been declining since 1867, when it was 33.1
per 1000. In 1886 it was 23.9, being 3.7 below the decennial
average. The rate in the Town sub.district was 26.4 and in
Brompton 17'0. There was one birth to 41.8 inhabitants and
101'2 births of males to 100 of females. The births of illegitimate
children were 190 (15 fewer than in 1885), viz., males 94
and females 96. Of these births 171 were registered in the Town