HH62/1/DUNBAR/63

Transcription

[Page] 62

TABLE VII.
Birth-rate per 1000 Living per Annum.

[Table inserted]

[Page] 63

It will be seen from this Table that the birth-rate in each of the
ten years, excepting the first, was above that of Scotland. In the
decade there were in the county about 860 births more than if
average rates had prevailed. Illegitimate children have as a rule
less parental care than those born in wedlock, and have a higher
mortality. In Scotland, in the ten years in question, the percent-
age of illegitimacy in the total births was 8·36. In the county it
was only 5·17 - a fact so far favourable to a low death-rate.

Death-rate. - Table VIII. (page 64) contains a statement
of the death-rates of the county as a whole for each of the
ten years, 1880-1889, with the corresponding rates for all
Scotland.
It will be seen that in every year of the decade, the Dunbarton-
shire mortality has been under the general mortality. On the
average, in every 10,000 of population, in Scotland, as a whole,
191 deaths occurred in a year, while in Dunbarton 180 deaths
occurred. Taking the population of the county at mean of 86,000
during the period in question, then in the ten years 946 fewer
deaths occurred than if ordinary rates had prevailed.
The next four tables give for the same ten years the death-rates
of the fourteen Registration Districts within the county. These
include both burghal and landward population.

(SEE TABLES IX, IXA, X, and XA.)

In the Western District the highest mortality was, naturally, in
Dunbarton, where the rate averaged 20·581 per 1000 living per
annum. The next highest rate was in Renton and Cardross
(18·735), and the next (18·080) in Bonhill. The lowest rate was
experienced in Arrochar, where nearly two-thirds of the popula-
tion have for some time consisted of navvies on the new railway,
among whom, barring accidents, there should be a very low
mortality. I say barring accidents because it happens that last
year, through deaths from exposure, drowning, &c., the navvies
raised the mortality to 20·82. The great variation from year to
year in some of the smaller Registration Districts shows how
needful it is to have a considerable basis of facts on which to