The annual Report of the Registrar-General for Ireland has been
published as a Blue-book, and though it shows no marked deviation from the decennial averages, presents several features of interest. The birth-rate remains practically stationary, with a decided superiority in numbers of boys over girls (105 to 100), and the figures for illegitimacy are as usual extremely low, only amounting to 2.5 per cent. The death- rate, 17'7, shows a fractional rise as compared with 1906, but is slightly below the average rate for the preceding ten years. The lowest mortality rates prevail in Munster and Connaught, and the highest in Leinster and Ulster. The high rate of deaths from tuberculosis remains unaltered,—a fact which emphasises the pressing need for the vigorous and influential campaign which has recently been organised. An interesting feature in connexion with the marriage statistics is that, out of a total of 22,509 registered during the year, only 422 were by civil contract. No official record is available as to immigration, but the loss by emigration, 39,072—about 1,700 above the decennial average—when set against the excess of births over deaths, shows a decline in the total population (estimated in 1907 at 4,377,064) of 14,674. What renders this drain so serious is the fact that no fewer than eighty-three per cent. of the emigrants were between fifteen and thirty-five years of age.
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