[Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    BIRTHS. 24,316 births were registered in Glasgow during the year 1905; and after deducting those born within the municipal area not belonging to Glasgow, and adding those born beyond the municipal area but belonging to Glasgow, there remain 24,175 births properly belonging to the City. This represents a birth- rate of 30778 per 1,000 persons living, calculated on the Medical Officer’s esti- mate of the population, as compared with 24,713 births, representing a birth-rate of 31 463 in 1904. The birth-rate is now lower than any previously recorded, and represents a fall in the rate equal to 685 per million compared with 1904. As with the marriage-rate so it is with the birth-rate when calculated over the total population, and a correction similar to that adopted in calculating the former is here introduced, save that the amended birth-rates are calculated on the number of females living between the ages of 15 and 45 years. Again there is illustration that the decrease shown in calculating the birth-rate over the whole population falls short of that which is actually occurring, and that although it is now 22 per cent, below the average for 1870-72, when calculated on the whole population, the actual reduction amounts to 28 per cent, when calculated on the number of women at child-bearing ages. Notwithstanding the various suggestions which have been advanced to explain the decline in the birth-rate, there seems in this, as well as in the reduced marriage- rate, a suggestion of decreased fertility, somewhat parallel to that which occurs in plant-life under conditions of excessive artificial culture. Glasgow.—Mean Annual Birth-rates. Calculated as a proportion per 1,000 on Total Population at All Ages. Calculated as a proportion per 1,000 on the Number of Women aged 15-45 years. Rate per 1,000. Compared with Rate in 1870-72, taken as 100. Rate per 1,000. Compared with Rate in 1870-72, taken as 100. 1870-72 40-9 100 173-5 100 1880-82 35-9 88 150-7 86 1890-92 35-2 86 125-6 72 1900-02 321 79 124-2 72 Returning to the usual method of stating these rates we have the following for several periods since 1871:—* Glasgow. Scotland. 1871-80, 36-6 34-9 1881-90, 36-5 32-4 1891-95, 33-9 30-7 1896-1900, 337 30-0 1901-1905, 31 -3 28-9 During the decade 1895-1904, and in 1905, the rates for the following large towns have been as follows:—* 1895-1904. 1905. Glasg’ow, 32-6 30'0 Edinburgh, 26-2 23-0 Dundee, 28-9 280 Aberdeen, 32-0 29-2 London, 29-2 27-1 Liverpool, 34-7 33-3 Manchester, ... 32-3 29-5 Birmingham, ... 32-7 29-3 The rates in these Tables are taken from the Registrar-General’s Annual Reports.