# K 6
# BIRTHS.
The births registered during the year were as follows:-
Males. Females. Total. Chinese, 788 338 1,125 Non-Chinese, 149 137 286 Total 1908, 937 475 1,412 Total 1907, 897 523 1,420This gives a general birth-rate of 4.2 per 1,000 as compared with 4.31 per 1,000 in 1907 and 4.01 per 1,000 in 1906.
The birth-rate amongst the Non-Chinese Community was 14.43 per 1,000 as compared with 15.95 per 1,000 in 1907 and 14.95 in 1906.
The nationalities of the Non-Chinese parents were as follows:- British 107, Indian 39, German 13, French 3, American 1, Portuguese 87, Filipino and Malay 20, Jewish 5, Dutch 3, Brazilian 1, Danish 1, Arabian 1, Persian 1, Mauritian 1, Spanish 1, Finnish 1, African 1.
The number of Chinese births registered does not give an accurate record of the number of births which have occurred. Owing to the custom of the Chinese of not registering a birth unless the child has survived for a month, and often in the case of female children not at all, it is probable that the majority if not all of the infants which die before they have lived for one month have not had their births registered. It is customary therefore to assume that all children not more than one month old who are found dead in the streets, harbour, hill-sides, etc., by the Police and those brought in a sickly or dying condition to the various convents have been born in the Colony but not registered. By adding the number of such children to the number of registered births a somewhat more correct number of births is probably obtained and from this is calculated a corrected birth-rate.
The number of such children in 1908 was 342 males and 509 females and one of unknown sex, total 852, which being added to the registered births makes a total of 2,264 as compared with 2,803 in 1907. The corrected birth-rate is therefore 6.72 whilst amongst the Chinese Community alone the rate becomes 6.21 instead of 3.55 per 1,000.
The preponderance of male over female births registered is very marked amongst the Chinese, there being 233 males to 100 females; in 1907 the proportion was 189 males to 100 females. When taking into consideration the above mentioned assumed unregistered births the proportion of males to females is 133 to 100 for 1908 as compared with 99 males to 100 females in 1907.
This suggests that even the "corrected birth-rate" is too low to approximate to the truth.
In the Non-Chinese Community the proportion of male births to female births for 1908 was 108 to 100 as compared with 119 to 100 in 1907, 122 to 100 in 1906, 103 to 100 in 1905, and 83 to 100 in 1904.
# DEATHS.
The deaths registered during the year numbered 9,271 (7,286 in 1907). The death-rate was therefore 27.55 per 1,000 as against 22.12 in 1907. These deaths included 986 from Plague, (198 in 1907).
The total number of deaths amongst the Chinese Community was 8,978 which gives a death-rate of 28.35 per 1,000 (as against 22.52 in 1907).
The deaths registered amongst the Non-Chinese Community numbered 293 of which 266 were from the Civil population, 20 from the Army and 7 from the Navy.
Thus gives a death-rate for the Non-Chinese Community of 14.78 per 1,000 as compared with 15.46 per 1,000 in 1907.
The nationalities of the deceased were as follows:- British 75, Indian 68, Portuguese 54, German 11, Japanese 27, American 7, Malay 10, French 3, Italian 2, Spanish 2, Austrian 1, Swedish 3, Danish 4, African 4, Norwegian 3, Dutch 1, Jewish 3, Filipino 5, Cingalese 2, Hawaiian 1, Russian 1, Parsee 1, Polynesian 1, Unknown 4.