[Report 1915] / Medical Officer of Health, Nottinghamshire County Council.

  • Nottinghamshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1915] / Medical Officer of Health, Nottinghamshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/96 (page 13)
    worse than the reality. There are, therefore, clear advan¬ tages in a frank acceptance of the Registrar-General’s suggestions for the whole County and its constituent parts. The estimate of the Registrar-General for the whole County for the middle of the year 1915, was 353,193, compared with 367,617 for 1914, showing a diminution of 14,424. When to this number is added the natural increase of 3,775. by excess of births over deaths, it would appear that about 18,199 young male adults had joined the Navy and Army from Nottinghamshire during the first half of 1915. No account has been taken of the influx of Belgians in the latter part of 1914. Many of them returned to Belgium during 1915, and in any case the numbers, except in the large towns, are not large. BIRTHS. The number of live births registered in the County during the year 1915, amounted to 8,843, showing an absolute decrease of 698, and corresponding to a rate of 25-0 per 1,000 of the population, compared Avitli 25-9 in 1914. The Urban rate was 26-4, and the Rural 22-5. The declining birth-rate is no new question, but it has acquired a new significance since the great European War has shown the vital importance of man-power to any country that Avishes to maintain its position in the world. If it be true, as it is asserted, that the final position depends mainly upon the number of healthy and vigorous young men that can be put into the firing-line, a country with a small popula¬ tion, which is increasing very sIoaa’Iv and may at any moment cease to increase at all, has need of serious reflection. Whether the decline in the birth-rate has gained such momentum that it cannot be overtaken is a most opportune question ; but a decline which has been steady and almost persistent for 37 years, disposes one to the opinion that a further fall is inevitable. A birth-rate of 13-5 per 1,000, among more than thirteen thousand persons at West Bridgford, gives much ground for serious thought. Almost equally serious is a birth-rate of 17-2 among 3,546 people in the Leake Rural District, 17-3 among 13,616 people in the Bingham Rural District, and