226 report — 185D. 



to produce or aggravate the evil of illegitimacy. These were, chiefly, the geogra- 

 phical position of the town, as (so to speak) the metropolis of a vast rural district, 

 'in which district the evil referred to abounds ; the great excess of females, and the 

 want of adequate employment for them, in Aberdeen, which leads, it is be- 

 lieved, to occasional prostitution, and thus to illegitimacy ; and various hindrances 

 that exist to marriage. He also pointed out, that the area included in the boundary 

 of the city for registration purposes is so unequal in the case of Aberdeen, and the 

 other large towns, as to prevent any fair comparison. He further showed that as 

 many of the Registrar-General's deductions are (necessarily) founded on estimates 

 of the population, some of those deductions must be modified by the census of 1861, 



Notes on the Statistics, chiefly Vital and Economic, of Aberdeen. 

 By James Valentine, ' Journal' Office, Aberdeen. 



The population of Aberdeen was 4000 in 1572, and 15,730 (according to Web- 

 ster's enumeration) in 1755. At the commencement of the century it was 26,992 ; 

 in 1821, 43,825 ; in 1851, 71,973. This embraces the Parliamentary boundary, which 

 includes a suburban and partly rural district : the town proper, i. e. the area covered 

 by streets, is about two miles square; the Parliamentary boundary is about ten 

 miles square. For purposes of registration of births, &c, again, an additional district, 

 wholly rural, and of about two miles square, to the north of the Parliamentary 

 boundary, is included. At present the purely town population is estimated at 7 1,000 ; 

 the suburban, including Old Aberdeen, a small burgh by itself, and Woodside, 

 a village, at 7000; and the rural at 2000=80,000. It is probable, however, that 

 the actual population of the city itself is somewhat below the figure mentioned. 



1. Vital statistics. — With respect to births, we have no data of any worth re- 

 ferring further back than the year 1855, when the General Registration system for 

 Scotland came into operation. Before that time there was a register of baptisms 

 only, which, from various causes, chiefly perhaps the indifference of the public, was 

 very incomplete. The births registered in the registration boundary of Aberdeen 

 for 1855, 1856, 1857, and 1858, were 299-25 in 10,000 persons living (according to 

 estimate of population). Comparing this with the birth ratio in the other larger 

 towns of Scotland, we find the proportion for Perth to be the lowest, viz. 277*75, 

 and Greenock the highest, viz. 499-25. 



2. Marriages. — The marriage ratio in Aberdeen is the lowest of any of the larger 

 towns in Scotland. For the four years 1855-58, it was 64-5 in 10,000 of the people 

 (estimated). The highest marriage ratio among the principal towns of Scotland 

 for the same period was in Greenock, namely, 100 in 10,000 of the population. 



3. Deaths. — The death ratio in Aberdeen for the four years 1855-58, was 212-25 

 in 10,000 persons ; in Edinburgh for the same period it was 232 ; in Glasgow, 

 294-25 ; and in Greenock, where the death ratio is highest of the principal towns, 

 it was 328-25. Tbe proportion of children under five years of aye who died yearly 

 in Aberdeen in the above four years was 32-2 per cent. ; in Edinburgh, 38-6 per 

 cent. ; in Glasgow (where this mortality is highest), 53-9 per cent. More than 

 one-half of the deaths in Glasgow are of children under five years of age ! The 

 average monthly mortality in Aberdeen for seven years, 1852 to 1858 both inclusive, 

 shows that the fewest deaths occur in August, viz. 116; next, July, 128; then 

 September, 130 : February and March show the highest mortality, 158 of the deaths 

 occurring in each of these two months. Among the large towns in Scotland, Aber- 

 deen shows, so far as data have been given, the least number of deaths occurring 

 where the benefit of medical aid was not experienced. 



The above comparatively favourable results as to the mortality of the town are 

 owing, in a considerable measure, to the fact of the large suburban and rural districts 

 above referred to, which are very healthy, being included in the area. It has to be 

 mentioned also, that the number of inhabited houses within the Parliamentary bound- 

 ary of Aberdeen in 1851 was in the proportion of 1 to 12-3 of the population : in 

 Dundee it was 1 in 15-6, in Edinburgh 1 in 20-6, and in Glasgow 1 in 27-5. The 

 maximum supply of water to the town is 1,250,000 gallons daily for (say) 67,000 of 

 the inhabitants,— the supply to several manufactories being, however, included in 

 this quantity, which is therefore somewhat insufficient in a sanitary point of view. 



