FEWER BIRTHS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21984, 20 June 1933, Page 14

FEWER BIRTHS

ENGLAND’S POPULATION. Further decreases, in the birth rate during 1932 were revealed in the English Registrar-general’s report, says the Daily Mail. The birth rate for the year was 15.3, the lowest for the past four years. There were 140,35? live births, registered in England and Wales during the last three months of 1932 —7175 fewer than in the similar quarter of 1031. There were 71)900 males and 68,390 females, a proportion of 1052 males to 1000 females. The natural increase of population by excess of births oyer deaths was 23,892, against 37,692, 38,893, and 29,532 in the corresponding quarters of 1929, 1930, and 1931. Deaths registered in the last quarter were 110,458 —18,507 more than in the preceding quarter, but 1535 fewer than in the corresponding quarter of 1931. Why does Holborn show a higher death rate than any other borough in England and a much higher death rate than any other borough in London? The return shows that while the death rate i.i 118 great towns was 11.5 per 1000 and in London 11.4, the rate in Holborn was 10.3. In Lewisham the rate was 9.3, and in Shoreditch 11.1. The explanation given to a Daily Mail reporter by a Holborn Council official was that in Holborn there are fewer children, and the population is above normal as regards average age. Other factors are: Housing conditions are below the average for the whole of London; the population of Holborn is so small —34,470 at the last census—that percentage rates are liable to higher fluctuations than a borough such as Camberwell, with 252,100.