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14
BIRTHS AND BIRTH RATE.
The total number of births registered during the year was 3,197,
males 1,671, females 1,526.
Twenty-one of these (males 11, females 10) were born at the Union
Workhouse, and three males and two females elsewhere.
Of the total births 53 were illegitimate; thirteen took place at the
Workhouse, two elsewhere without, and the remainder within the district.
The number of these births varies but little from year to year—about
sixteen in every 1,000 registered births are non-legitimates.
The total number of births since the last census was:—34,480 and
there were actually fewer children born in 1910 than in 1901. The
births registered yearly since 1891 are given on page 22.
The birth-rate for the year is 22 6 per 1,000 of the estimated population
of the Registrar-General, a rate lower than any yet recorded here,
lower than that of the country as a whole, the 77 "Great" and the 136
" Smaller Towns " of England.
A rate of 24.2 based on the population of 132,000 is likely to be
much more consonant with the actual conditions than that given, but
the fact remains that our birth-rate like the country generally, has been
steadily diminishing within recent years.
Accompanying this decline we have had a corresponding fall in the
general death-rate, so the natural increase of the population continues.
Our lowered birth-rate has also been compensated for largely by a
lessened death-rate in children in the first year of life.
The birth-rate for England and Wales in 1910 was 24.8; for the
77 "Great Towns" 25 0; and for the 136 "Smaller Towns" 23.7.
The ratio of male to female births was as 100 to 91.