REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF RECORDS FOR THE YEAR 1908. Population. The population of the City of New York as enumerated by the State authorities in 1905 consisted of 4,014,304 persons, and by the Federal authorities in 1900 of 3,437,202 persons, an increase of 577,102, and upon the assumption that the rate of increase that prevailed in the quinquennium 1900-1905 was maintained, the estimated population in 1908 was 4,422,685, distributed among the Boroughs as follows: Manhattan, 2,292,894; The Bronx, 327,553; Brooklyn, 1,492,970; Queens, 232,580, and Richmond, 76,685. GENERAL STATISTICS. Births. There were 126,862 births reported during the year against 120,720 in 1907, an increase of 6,142, distributed among the Boroughs as follows: Manhattan, 1,104; The Bronx, 1,118; Brooklyn, 3,274; Queens, 596, and Richmond, 50. The birth-rate recorded in the year 1898, the year of the formation of the Greater City, was 24.12 per 1,000 of the population; in 1908 the rate was 28.68, an increase over 1898 of 4.56 per 100; the average number reported in the decennium, 1898-1907, was 93,534, with a rate per 1,000 of 24.98, the number and the rate in the year 1908 exceeding this average by 33,328 and 3.70 per 1,000 respectively. This tremendous increase was due to two causes, first, the more complete registration (though there are still many that are not recorded by reason of the neglect of the medical attendants and midwives), and, second, by the great influx into the City during the past ten years of Italian and Russian immigrants who materially increase the birth-rate of the community by reason of their unrestrained fecundity. The number of children recorded as born of native mothers was 39,990, of foreign mothers 86,842, and mother's nativity not stated 30; that is, about 32 per cent. represented the native mothers' share and 68 per cent. the foreign mothers' share in the production of future citizens; the number of native-born and foreign females at child-bearing ages not being ascertainable, recourse must be had to an estimation of the birth-rate per one thousand females at all ages according to their nativity, and it will be seen that the fertility of the native mothers is slightly less than one-fourth that of the foreign mothers, to be exact, for every four children born of native mothers, seventeen are born of foreign mothers. Estimated number of native born females... Number of births with native born mothers..... 1.414,817 39,990 28.26 793,332 85,842 109.46 Nearly eighty thousand of the infants whose births were reported during the year were born of mothers whose knowledge of the English language is extremely meagre and of sanitary precautions almost nil; if we consider that during the previous four years the same preponderance of infants born of non-English-speaking mothers prevailed, then the magnitude of the task of saving the lives of these infants may be realized; of the 86,842 births reported as born of foreign mothers, 26,021 or 30 per cent. were of Italian mothers, 25,812 or 29.7 per cent. Russian Polish, 11,831 or 13.6 per cent. Austro-Hungarian, 8,436 or 9.7 per cent. Irish, 5,785 or 6.7 per cent. German, and 8,957 or 10.3 per cent. of other foreign. As usual, the number of male exceeded that of female births, the figures being 64,541 and 62,321 respectively; 1,973 colored (African) births were reported, and 10 yellow (Chinese); 71,210 births were reported by physicians and 55,652 by midwives; 2,112 reported were apparently illegitimate; 1,040 pairs of twins and 8 groups of triplets were recorded. Marriages. The marriages reported during the year 1908 numbered 37,499 against 51,097 in 1907, a decrease of 13,598; the rate for the year of 1908 of 16.96 persons married per one thousand of the population at all ages was 6.88 lower than that of 1907, which reached the highest figure on record, 23.84 persons married per one thousand; this precipitous slump in the absolute figures and rate was due to two causes, the financial depression which began in the late fall of 1907 and the enactment of the Marriage License Law which went into effect January 1, 1909, this latter being the most potent of the two factors. In consequence of the requirements of this law thousands of persons matrimonially inclined sought the, to them, hospitable shores of the State of New Jersey, where the knots were tied just as securely and with far less trouble than in New York State; 34,577 single, 2,695 widowed and 227 divorced males married 34,870 single, 2,314 widowed and 315 divorced females; 3 white females married blacks, and 17 white females married Chinamen; 29,268 natives were married, and 45,730 foreigners. Still-Births. There were 7,191 still-births reported during the year with a rate of 1.63 per 1,000 against 7,351 during 1907 with a rate of 1.72 per 1,000. Deaths. There were 73,072 deaths reported during 1908, giving a deathrate of 16.52 per 1,000 of the population, against 79,205 deaths and a rate of 18.48, a decrease of 6,133 deaths and 1.96 in the rate per 1,000. The quinquennial average for the immediately preceding five years was 18.62 per 1,000, the rate for 1908 being 2.10 points lower. The following table gives the population, deaths and death-rates per 1,000 from all causes for the four decenniums included in the years 18681907, and the year 1908, in the territory covered by the present Boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx, and Brooklyn, the Boroughs of Queens and Richmond being excluded by reason of the absence of complete mortality returns therein previous to the year of formation of the Greater City in 1898. |