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75
MARRIAGES AND MARRIAGE RATE.
The marriages in 1889 were 1491, against 1605, 1561, and
1497 in 1886-7-8 respectively. Of these there were celebrated
:—
By the Church (73.2 per cent. of total marriages) 1092
At Roman Catholic places of worship 128
At other Nonconformist places of worship 65
At the Superintendent Registrar's Office 206
Total 1491
The marriage rate, i.e., persons married to 1000 inhabitants,
was nearly 16.8. The marriage rate in England and Wales was
14.2 per 1000, corresponding with the rate in 1888, and being
0.6 below the mean rate in the ten years 1878-87. The
marriage rate in London was 16.1, the lowest rate yet recorded;
the five next lowest rates, moreover, being those recorded in the
five immediately preceding years, 1883-7, in which the rates were
successively 17.9, 17.6, 16.9, 16.6, and 16.3 per 1000.
BIRTHS AND BIRTH-RATE.
The births registered in 1889 were 3698—males, 1846,
and females, 1852 : in the Town sub-district, 3008, and in the
Brompton sub-district, 690. The births in 1888 were 3776,
or 78 above the number last year, in which the births, 914
below the decennial average corrected for increase of population,
were fewer by 343 than in 1872, when the population was
smaller by 50,000 than in 1889. The birth-rate in Kensington,
considerably lower than the London rate (30.3), and that of
England and Wales (30.5), has been declining since 1868, when
it was 33.1 per 1000. In 1889 it was 20.8, being 4.5 below
the decennial average. The rate in the Town sub-district was
23.1 and in Brompton 14.4. There was one birth to 48.1 inhabitants
and 100'3 births of females to 100 of males, a reversal
of the usual proportions. The births of illegitimate children were