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VITAL STATISTICS
POPULATION The Registrar General's mid-year estimate of the population of the
Borough for the year 1957 1s 105 100
RATEABLE VALUE The rateable value of the Borough for 1957 was £1,977 413 and
the sum represented by a penny rate was £7 900
INHABITATED HOUSES According to the rate books the number of habitable houses,
flats and shops with living accommodation at the end of the year was 30 285 In
relation to the estimated population this yields an average of approximately 3 5
persons per house
LIVE BIRTHS The number of live births in 1957 was 1,305 as compared with 1,235
in 1956 The birth rate was 12 3 per 1,000 population The birth rate will vary,
apart from other causes according to the age and sex distribution of the population,
and to permit of a true comparison with other areas the Registrar-General supplies
for each local sanitary authority what is called the area comparability factor
When this is applied to the Borough birth rate the result is 12.2 as compared with
the birth rate of 16.1 per 1,000 population for England and Wales
The number of illegitimate births was 47 as compared with 41 in 1956 The proportion
of live births which were illegitimate expressed as a percentage of the total
live births is shown below for recent years. -
1925-29
1930-34
1935-39
1940-44
3.9
3.2
2.9
4.6
1945-49
1950-54
1955
1956
1957
5.1
4.0
4.2
3.3
3.6
The majority of births continue to occur in hospital

This loss of potential lives remains a problem and until more is known of the
causes little further improvement can be expected
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