CITY OF BOSTON.

To the City Council:

The undersigned begs leave to submit his Annual Report of the Births, Marriages and Deaths in the City of Boston, accompanied with illustrative tables and such remarks as have seemed to him deserving of consideration.

BIRTHS.

The number of births registered during the year 1873 was 9,688, an increase of 418, or 4.51 per cent. over the number recorded in the preceding year. This is a fair increase, and is in the ratio of one birth in 28.55 of the population. The number of births in 1872 exceeded those in 1871 by 8.36 per cent., which were double the number of any one year within the previous twenty years. The ratio of the births in the State at large is one birth to 36.50 of the whole population. The number of births in the city to each one thousand of the population was 35, while in the State at large it was 28. The number of still-births during the year was 515; if these are added to those born alive, the ratio will appear as 36.89. The daily average of living births was 26.54; including the still-births, the average was 28.

The most noticeable feature in the above table is the small number of children of native parentage compared with those of Irish nativity. The latter exceed the former by 948, an excess of 40 per cent. The whole number of children of American parentage, including half of those recorded as unknown, was 2,338, or 24.13 per cent. of all the births. The number of native fathers was 3,094, or 31.94 per cent. of the whole number. The number of instances in which one or both parents were native born, including half of those whose nativity was unknown, was 4,040, or 41.70 per cent. of the entire number. It will thus be seen that 58.30 per cent. of the children are of foreign parentage. With the exception of those of native and of Irish parents, in each of which cases there was a decrease of more than one per cent. compared

*Both parents of the same nativity.

† The parents, in each instance, born in different countries.

with the preceding year, the same relative proportions are exhibited.

The births in each month are given in the following table, nearly 28 per cent. of which occurred in the last quarter, and 54.36 per cent. in the last half of the year.

The following table shows the number and percentage of the births in each ward, compared with a similar exhibit of the preceding year:

It will be seen by the above table that 56.34 per cent. of the births occurred in Wards 1, 2, 7, 12 and 15, which wards contain about 46 per cent. of the entire population. No less than 23.36 per cent. of the births occurred in South Boston, which embraces Ward 12 and a part of Ward 7. A little over 10 per cent. of the births occurred in Wards 4, 5, 6 and

8, which contain nearly 19 per cent. of the population. There was an increase of 686 births, 53.64 per cent. of which occuri ed in Wards 3, 7 and 11. There was a decrease of 268 births in Wards 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10. Only 23.48 per cent. of the births occurred in the six last-named wards, which contain upwards of 34 per cent. of the population of the entire city. The decrease in Ward 2 (41) is a legitimate one, and is owing to the rapidly diminishing population in that locality; but the large decrease in each of Wards 4, 8 and 10 is not to be accounted for on similar grounds.

The number of colored children born was 132, being in the ratio of one birth in 27.27 of the colored population, or 36.66 births to each 1,000 of that class. The births of white children were in the ratio of 28.57 to the white population, or 35 in each 1,000. The colored births were 113 less than the colored decedents. In the preceding year the deaths exceeded the births by 47. This interesting result is not an exceptional one, but is witnessed every year, and plainly shows that the African race is an exotic one in northern latitudes.