L 16
BIRTHS.
The births registered during the year were as follows:-
Males. Females. Total. Chinese, 1,741 927 2,668 Non-Chinese, 179 154 333 Total 1914, 1,920 1,081 3,001 1913, 2,138 1,593 3,731This gives a general birth rate of 7.3 per 1,000 as compared with 9.4 per 1,000 in 1913 and 7.1 per 1,000 in 1912.
The birth and death rates are based on the estimated population of the Colony as given on page 12; the increase in the birth rate during 1913 was no doubt due in part to the large influx of Chinese from the mainland and in part to the temporary suspension of the custom which prevails among Chinese women in Hongkong returning to their native villages for the birth of their children. The exodus from Hongkong induced by the European war restored the birth rate to more normal dimensions.
The birth rate among the Non-Chinese community was 16.8 per 1,000 as compared with 15.8 per 1,000 in 1913 and 16.2 in 1912.
The nationalities of the Non-Chinese parents were as follows:- British 137, Portuguese 76, Indian 60, Malay and Filipino 21, German 11, American, Spanish and Jew 5 each, Dutch, French, African, West Indian and Brazilian 2 each, Austrian, Roumanian and Japanese 1 each.
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 births 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 are sickly at birth or die before they have lived one month have not been registered. It is customary, therefore, to assume that all children of one month old and under, who are admitted to the various Convents (being brought there sick by poor people) and all young infants found dead in the streets, harbour, hillsides, etc., by the Police, have been born in the Colony but not registered. By adding the number of such children to the number of the registered births it is assumed that a somewhat more correct number of births is obtained and from this is calculated a corrected birth rate.
The number of such children in 1914 was 407 males and 560 females, total 967, which being added to the registered births, makes a total of 3,968 as compared with 4,758 in 1913. The corrected birth rate is, therefore, 9.7 while amongst the Chinese community alone the rate becomes 9.3 instead of 6.8 per 1,000.