Annual birth, marriage and death counts for Registration Districts

Table ID:

VITAL_EW_REG_ANN     (1253390)

Contents:

Annual birth, marriage and death counts for Registration Districts

Approx. number of rows:

42,893

Table type:

Raw Data

Documentation Author:

Humphrey Southall

Geography:

Reporting units are identified by:
   Registration Division
   Registration County
   Registration District
   Registration District Number
   Suffix to Registration District Number

Chronology:

The data cover the period 1850 to 1910.
Dates and times are identified by:
   Year

Sources:

1. This is a selective transcription of the first set of tables within the 'Abstract' section of each of the Annual Reports of the Registrar General, from 1850 onwards. In 1910, the specific title was "Births (distinguishing legitimate and illegitimate), deaths and marriages registered in England and Wales, and in the several registration divisions, counties, and districts; and births and deaths in sub-districts", occupying pages 144 to 205 of the report.
2. The transcription is selective in two senses. Firstly, most of the rows in the source tables are for sub-Districts, but this transcription is limited to Divisions, Counties and Districts. This means it also excludes information on whether areas contained hospitals, workhouses etc, given at sub-district level, and most of the footnotes. Secondly, the table also included columns giving the area of each district and the total population, both copied from the most recent census.
3. District-level data for all years 1881 to 1910 were originally input by Rachel Granville in Portsmouth in Spring 2002, and then held as the table 'mort_tot_reg'. During summer 2020, Humphrey Southall computerised the data for counties, divisions and national totals for 1850 to 1910, plus district-level data for 1861, and rebuilt the entire table with its current name, using the county-level data to systematically check and correct the district-level data. In Spring 2021 Harold Price added the remaining district level data for 1850-1880 This is the longest run of such data which can be constructed from a single source table, as before 1850 the Annual Reports listed marriages, births and deaths at district-level in separate tables, and after 1910 reporting was based on local government districts.
4. This table was renamed in May 2020, it was previously called 'vital_reg_ew'.

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Notes:

1. This table provides only the most basic counts of births, marriages and deaths, disaggregating births at district level primarily by legitimacy, and deaths only by gender. More detailed data on causes of death and the age structure of deaths was presented in other tables in the 'Abstract' section.
2. The reports categorise births by gender and 'legitimacy', but how this was done varies by date and, from 1881 onwards, by type of area. As far as possible, we have computed values which were not reported, but after 1881 it is not possible to calculate numbers of male and female births for districts.
3. The notes to the source tables provide a substantial amount of information on boundary changes and their impact on the counts. This transcription aims to include all notes identifying the creation, abolition or re-naming of Registration Districts. However, information about boundary changes mainly relates to sub-districts, most such changes clearly did not change districts, and even where they did it is usually unclear which districts were enlarged and which reduced, so such notes have not been systematically transcribed, and the separate boundary change listings in the RG's Annual Reports still need to be consulted. What is clear is that where possible the RG backdated changes, so that the data are as they would have been had the change occurred at the start of each calendar year. In some cases, however, they lead to two areas being bracketed together and given a single figure. This mainly affects births and deaths in sub-districts, not included in the current transcription, but for two cases involving districts see below.
4. Up to 1902, the reports do not include separate totals for the individual counties of Wales, except Monmouth, instead giving sub-totals for 'South Wales' and 'North Wales'. These statistical aggregates have been defined as counties in the AUO, and are categorised here as rows of type 'WalesPart'. From 1903 onwards, the source tables and the transcription add totals for the individual Welsh counties while still also listing these aggregates. We have used the district-level data to compute and insert totals for the individual Welsh counties pre-1903, but these inevitably lack gender-specific counts of births.

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Checking:

1. The original reports have a very high level of numerical consistency, but were unfortunately poorly printed, with a significant number of counts either completely missing or lacking particular digits. Fortunately, most missing values for divisions, counties or districts are easily inferred by all of three distinct methods:
   • From other data for the same area; for example, if male deaths are missing, by subtracting female deaths from total deaths.
   • By summing data for lower-level areas, including summing sub-district data to get district counts.
   • By subtracting the total for all other areas at the same level from the reported total for the next level up.
   Unfortunately, the table contains no disaggregation of marriages, and they were not recorded for sub-districts, so only the final method could be used, and this depends on identifying one and only one district being responsible for any inconsistency between the sum of district marriage counts and the county totals.
2. All birth and death counts have been checked for within area consistency, and all counts including marriages have been further checked by comparison with higher level counts. This has led to many cases where missing or illegible figures have been replaced by inferred values, leaving the following problematic data values:
   • 1860, Devon: The summed total of births in the districts (17,712) was less than the reported county total (17,735) by 23. This also means the excess was inconsistent, with the summed total (6106) being less than the reported county total (6129) by 23. The figures are correctly transcribed, no action has been taken.
   • 1864, Essex: The sum of the illegitimate births in the districts (709) was less than the reported county total (1165) by 456. For illegitimate male births the summed total (361) was less than the reported total (590) by 229. For illegitimate female births the summed total (348) was less than the reported total (575) by 227. All district counts were clearly printed and correctly transcribed, so there was no way to identify any particular district as in error.
   • 1866, Oxfordshire: Two districts did not match the summed excess obtained by subtracting the total deaths from the total births against the given excess. These were Witney, where the summed excess (297) was less than the given excess (307) by 10, and Woodstock, where the summed excess (179) was more than the given excess (169) by 10. All district counts were clearly printed and correctly transcribed. While it is likely there is a relationship between the errors here, no action has been taken.
   • 1870, Devon: The district of Kingsbridge did not match the summed excess obtained by subtracting the total deaths from the total births (82) against the given excess (89). The figures were correctly transcribed, so no action has been taken.
   • 1870, Herefordshire: The sum of the district marriage counts (608) was less than the reported total (698) by 90. All the printed values were correctly transcribed, so the error cannot be identified.
   • 1887, London: The sum of the district marriage counts (42,816) was greater than the reported total for London (34,251) by 8,565. All the printed values were correctly transcribed, but comparing each district count with the counts for the same districts in 1886 and 1888, two districts were clearly problematic: St George in the East (1887 count = 24, 1886=319, 1888=260) and Poplar (1887 count = 9763, 1886=1093, 1888=993). If the printed values were ignored, and the implied joint count for the two districts (1,222) was allocated pro rata to the sums of the 1886 and 1888 counts, they would be given values of 265 and 957 respectively. However, assuming the St. George count should start with "24", and that the actual Poplar count should contain 3 of the 4 printed digits, they were given estimated values of 249 and 973.
   • 1887, Suffolk: The sum of legitimate births in districts (10,499) was less than the reported county total (10,500) by 1, and the sum of illegitimate births (616) was greater than the reported total (615) by 1. All district counts were clearly printed and correctly transcribed, and the numbers of legitimate births in sub-districts correctly summed to the district values, so there was no way to identify any particular district as in error.
   • 1892, London: The marriage count for Whitechapel appears as '44' in the source, an order of magnitude smaller than values for adjacent years, and the count for Stepney is completely missing. From the county total for London and the sum for other London districts, the joint marriage count for the two districts was 859. This was allocated between them pro rata to the sum of their data for the adjacent years, 1891 and 1893, giving estimated 1892 counts for Whitechapel and Stepney of 470 and 389 respectively.
   • 1894, West Riding: The listed county total for marriages 20,301, was greater than the sum of the district data by 100. The source table was very carefully re-examined, but it was impossible to identify any of the district marriage counts as problematic so no correction could be made.
   • 1896, Hertfordshire: The marriage counts for Ware, Bishop Stortford, Royston, Hitchin and Hertford Districts are all completely missing. Their implied joint total of 672 was allocated between them pro rata to the sums of the 1895 and 1897 counts for each district.
   • 1901, Sussex: The newly-divided Lewes and Newhaven districts are separately listed, but are bracketed together for a marriage count of 211. This has been allocated to the two districts pro rata to the sums of their marriage counts in the next two years, 1902 and 1903.
   • 1909, Middlesex: The newly-divided Hendon and Willesden districts are separately listed, but are bracketed together for the marriage count of 1403. This has been allocated to the two districts pro rata to the sums of their marriage counts in the next two years, 1910 and 1911 (although the 1911 report mostly switched to local government districts, there is a table giving marriage counts by Registration District).
   Following this work, this transcription contains just the remaining 7 inconsistencies, as listed above, for 1860 (Devon), 1864 (Essex), 1866 (Oxfordshire), 1870 (Devon, Herefordshire), 1887 (Suffolk) and 1894 (West Riding).
3. All rows in the table have been matched to the AUO, with the exception of the parts of traditional counties within London, which are not defined in the AUO.

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Indices:

Index	Type	Column(s) indexed
vital_ew_reg_ann_pkey	Primary key	year, g_unit, rec_num
vital_ew_reg_ann_idx_dist	Unique	reg_cnty_unit, match_dist, year, rec_num

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Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

Constraint	Type	Details
vital_ew_reg_ann_pkey	Primary Key	See details above for primary key index

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Columns within table:

Column	Type	Contents
year	Integer number.	Calendar year covered by the data.
row_type	Text string (max.len.=14).	Type of area covered by the current row. The available values are: Nation: National total for England and Wales. The unit ID is held only in g_unit. Division: Totals for a Registration Division. The unit ID is held in both reg_div_unit and g_unit. County: Totals for a Registration County. The unit ID is held in both reg_cnty_unit and g_unit. LonPart: Totals for those Districts within the London Division within each of the three ancient counties, i.e. Middlesex, Surrey and Kent. These areas are not currently defined in the AUO so these rows have no ID numbers. WalesPart: Data for 'South Wales' or 'North Wales'. Up to and including 1902, these are listed as counties in the source tables, but we have computed county data for the individual Welsh counties from the district-level data. District: Registration District. The unit ID is held in both reg_dist_unit and g_unit. Dist:PLU: Poor Law Union which was a sub-division of a Registration District. The district ID is held in reg_dist_unit while g_unit holds the ID of the Poor Law area, if known. This is needed if aggregates of districts or counties are required.
reg_div	Text string (max.len.=44).	Name of the Registration Division. "ENGLAND AND WALES", for the national totals, is also held here.
reg_cnty_num	Integer number.	Number of Registration County.
reg_cnty	Text string (max.len.=44).	Name of Registration County.
reg_num	Integer number.	Number of Registration District.
reg_sfx	Text string (max.len.=5).	Suffix to number of Registration District, allowing IDs such as '431A'.
reg_dist	Text string (max.len.=104).	Name of Registration District to which data relate. Null for data for Divisions and Counties.
birth_tot	Integer number.	Births: Total. Included in source tables for all years and areas.
birth_m	Integer number.	Male births, legitimate or illegitimate. Included in source tables for 1871 to 1880. Included as a derived value for counties and higher-level areas for later dates.
birth_f	Integer number.	Female births, legitimate or illegitimate. Included in source tables for 1871 to 1880. Added as a derived value for counties and higher-level areas for later dates.
birth_legit	Integer number.	Births: Legitimate. Included in the source tables for 1881 onwards but only for districts and sub-districts. Added as a derived value from other counts for all other dates and types of area.
birth_legit_m	Integer number.	Births: Legitimate: Males. Up to 1880, not reported but has been computed from birth_m and birth_illegit_m. From 1881 onwards, listed only for counties, divisions and national totals.
birth_legit_f	Integer number.	Births: Legitimate: Females. Up to 1880, not reported but has been computed from birth_f and birth_illegit_f. From 1881 onwards, listed only for counties, divisions and national totals.
birth_illegit	Integer number.	Births: Illegitimate. Included in the source tables for 1881 onwards but only for districts and sub-districts. Added as a derived value from other counts for all other dates and types of area.
birth_illegit_m	Integer number.	Births: Illegitimate: Males. Up to 1880, reported for all areas. From 1881 onwards, listed only for counties, divisions and national totals.
birth_illegit_f	Integer number.	Births: Illegitimate: Females. Up to 1880, reported for all areas. From 1881 onwards, listed only for counties, divisions and national totals.
death_tot	Integer number.	Deaths: Total.
death_m	Integer number.	Deaths: Males.
death_f	Integer number.	Deaths: Females.
mar_tot	Integer number.	Marriages. Note that this count is not given for sub-districts, or for years before 1885.
excess	Integer number.	Excess of births over deaths. Listed only for years before 1885, when it was replaced by the count of marriages.
notes	Long text.	Footnotes copied from the original report. These are mainly information about boundary changes, and their impact on the data, and we have tried to include all notes which affect district-level data. They also list, for those districts covering more than one Poor Law Union, which sub-districts formed each union. These latter notes are not included in the current transcription, but enable calculation of total deaths for the separate unions, as held in the vital_ew_reg_ann table.
nation_unit	Integer number.	ID of either England or Wales, as appropriate and derived from the county the District was in.
reg_div_unit	Integer number.	ID number of the Registration Division, as defined in the AUO.
reg_cnty_unit	Integer number.	ID number of the Registration County, as defined in the AUO.
reg_dist_unit	Integer number.	ID number of the Registration District, as defined in the AUO.
g_unit	Integer number.	ID number, as defined in the AUO, of the area covered by the current row. See documentation for the row_type column for what exactly will be held here.
above_unit	Integer number.	[No description available]
match_dist	Text string (max.len.=84).	[No description available]
rec_num	Integer number.	Sequence number added on loading, keeping rows in correct order.