The following table shows for Cuba the number of deaths during 1906 and the proportion of the total number of deaths in each age group, as compared with the proportion of the total number of deaths in the same age groups in the United States:

In the following table are presented the number of births and the birth rates, for the years from 1900 to 1906:

The birth rate for Cuba is low, being less than that for the United States and less than the rates for many European countries. This is remarkable in view of the fact that the years represented followed a disastrous war. Ordinarily, in such cases, the rate would be very high. The sudden falling off in the number of births in 1906 is also unaccountable unless it is assumed that registration has been incomplete.

The number of births reported in 1906 is 10,000 less than the number of children under one year of age according to the census of 1907. If the probable number of deaths occurring in this age group during the year is added to the number of children in this age group, an approximate estimate of the number of births will be secured. The figure obtained in this way is 75,000, which shows that the omissions probably made were not much less than 19,000, and that the birth rate would therefore be 37 instead of 28.

The following table shows the births among the white and colored and the proportion of the total for each class of the population:

The following table shows, for each province, the number of births in 1906, and the birth rate, on the basis of the population enumerated in the census of 1907.

The excess of births over deaths in each province was as follows: Pinar del Río, 1,972; Habana, 3,698; Matanzas, 3,171; Santa Clara, 7,795; Camagüey, 1,947; and Oriente, 7,359.

VITAL STATISTICS OF HABANA.

According to the census of 1899 the population of the city of Habana was 242,055. In 1907 the city had 302,526 inhabitants, 50.2 per cent of whom were native white, 24.5 per cent foreign white, and 25.3 per cent negroes.

The registers of deaths occurring in the city of Habana have been published since 1820 and appear to be reasonably complete, at least so far as the whites are concerned. Following is a statement of the annual average death rate per 1,000 inhabitants, by decades, based on these records:

The violent fluctuations in the death rates are characteristic of a city which has been subject to epidemics. The average death rate of the city while under Spanish rule was 40 per 1,000 inhabitants, whereas after the American intervention it declined to 22 per 1,000. Exclusive of the destruction caused by yellow fever and smallpox, the average death rate from 1870 to 1899 was 36 per 1,000. It is evident, therefore, that the sanitary improvements introduced by the Americans not only wiped out yellow fever and smallpox, but also caused the death rates from other causes to decline.

The total number of deaths registered in 1906 was 6,144, which shows a death rate of 20.3 per 1,000. The principal diseases were the following: