[Report 1903] / Medical Officer of Health, Glamorgan County Council.

  • Glamorgan (Wales). County Council. nb2014013905.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1903] / Medical Officer of Health, Glamorgan County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The actual increase during this period, however, was 163,444, so that 163,444—113,630 = 49,814 represents the increase brought about by immigration to the County, mostly of young adults seeking employ- ment at the various mines and works in consequence of the depressed state of agriculture and the inducement of better wages offered. BIRTHS. There were 23,312 births registered in the Administrative County during the year 1903. This is equivalent to a birth-rate of 36-9. Of these, 17,502 occurred in Urban and 5,810 in Rural Districts, giving a birth-rate for the former of 37-6, and for the latter of 34-90. The birth-rate shows a slight decrease as compared with 1902. The local rates are given in Table I (Appendix), but the information as to sexes is incomplete in the Reports from Cowbridge Borough, Glyncorwg, Ogmore and Garw, Oystermouth, Rhondda, and Gower. Among the individual Districts the birth-rates vary from 43-0 to 2079 ; the highest being 43-0 in Gelligaer and Rhigos, 42-8 in Ogmore and Garw, 42-14 in Glyncorwg, and 40-7 in Rhondda ; whilst the lowest are 20-79 in Cowbridge Borough, 24-0 in Porthcawl, 26-9 in Penarth, 28-0 in Oystermouth, and 29-68 in Bridgend. The birth-rate in England and Wales in 1903 was 28-4 per 1,000 of the population, which is 0-2 per 1,000 below the rate in 1902, and lower than the rate in any year on record ; compared with the average in the ten years 1893-1902, the birth-rate in 1903 shows a decrease of i-o per 1,000. Exactly the same decrease is shown in the County. This relatively high birth-rate, as explained in previous Reports, is, doubtless, accounted for by early marriages, the preponderance of young adults consequent upon the large proportion of artizan population in the County. Amongst other causes the birth-rate exerts an influence on the death-rate which is frequently overlooked, but the fact should not be lost sight of that any circumstances which lower the birth-rate will cceteris paribus, for many years tend to lower the death-rate, and vice versa. In the following Table are given the mean figures for the County for seven years, 1893-1899, and for England and Wales for the ten years, 1890-1899, together with the rates for 1900, 1901, 1902, and 1903. TABLE II. Year. Birth-rate per 1,000 Population. Glamorgan. England and Wales. General. Urban. Rural. 1890-1899. 1893-1899. 37-55 39-11 33-55 30-0 1900 35-58 37-58 31-39 28-7 1901 36-8 38-04 337 28-5 1902 37-8 39-15 3T32 28-6 I9°3 36-9 37‘6 34-90 28-4 From this it will be seen that the County birth-rate is far in excess of the average for England and Wales, and that there is not a great difference between the birth-rate in the Urban, and that in the majority of our so-called Rural Districts.