26
annual number of live births in the islands land population would have been about 180-185 each for males and females.
The 1911 overall situation for females from the Southern District land population is generally similar to that for Northern District. The increase in recorded females aged 20-25, however, is rather higher in percentage terms than in Northern District (16% as compared with 11%), and must include some immigration of women into the district as well as under-reporting of resident unmarried young women.
This postulated immigration into the district of young adult land population women who probably, in many cases, left the district again before death - raises the average age of death for women in the Southern District land population as compared with Northern District from 24 to 26, and causes, as will be noted below, a similar slip of 2 or 3 years in, for instance, the average age of marriage, when compared with Northern District. This influx of young women into Southern District was small (possibly only 10 a year), and is possibly connected with the prostitution trade which is known from oral sources to have been significant on Cheung Chau, although other immigrant female workers may also have been involved.