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118
MARRIAGES AND MARRIAGE RATE.
The marriages in 1887 were 1,561 and 44 fewer than in
1886. Of these there were celebrated—
By the Church (73.5 per cent. of total marriages) 1,147
At Roman Catholic places of worship 146
At other Nonconformist places of worship 60
At the Superintendent Registrar.s Office 208
Total 1,561
The marriage rate, i.e., persons married to 1,000 inhabitants,
was 17.8. The marriage rate in the country generally
was 14.2 per 1,000, being 0.l above the rate in 1886 (which
was the lowest on record since the commencement of civil
registration in 1837), but 0.8 below the mean rate in the ten
years 1877-86. The marriage rate in London was 16.2, the
lowest rate yet recorded; the four next lowest, moreover, being
those recorded in the four immediately preceding years, 1883-6,
in which the rates were successively 17.9, 17.6, 16.9, and
16.6 per 1,000.
BIRTHS AND BIRTH RATE.
The births registered in 1887 were 3,941—males, 2,016,
and females, 1,925; in the Town sub-district, 3,202, and in the
Brompton sub-district, 739. The births in 1886 were 4,149,
or 208 above the number last year, in which the births, 785
below the decennial average corrected for increase of population,
were fewer by 100 than in 1872, when the population was
smaller by 47,600 than in 1887. The birth rate in Kensington,
considerably lower than the London rate (31.7), and that
of England and Wales (314), has been declining since 1868,
when it was 33.1 per 1,000. In 1887 it was 22.5, being 4.5
below the decennial average. The rate in the Town subdistrict
was 24.9 and in Brompton 16.0. There was one birth
to 44 inhabitants and 104.7 births of males to 100 of females.
The births of illegitimate children were 188 (2 fewer than in
1886), viz., males 114 and females 74. Of these births 174