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has risen from 68 to 116 per 1,000. Moreover, for the year 1964.
the mean age at marriage for bachelor bridegrooms was 25.24 and
for spinster brides 22.78, both exemplifying this tendency for
earlier marriage.
Mrs. V. M. Gilham and Mr. H. E. Turner, Superintendent
Registrars for the Districts of Greenwich and Woolwich respectively,
have kindly furnished me with particulars relating to the
number of marriages solemnised or registered in the London
Borough of Greenwich during 1965. The total of 1,992 gives a
marriage rate (i.e. persons marrying) of 17.24, an increase of 1.48
over that calculated for the previous year and is 1.74 in advance
of the figure of 15.5 for England and Wales. Greater London
returned a rate of 18.13.

Births
Fertility is a measure of the rate at which a specific community
adds to itself by births and this is usually assessed by relating
the number of births to the population of the particular group
concerned, i.e. the birth rate. Clearly this is not an accurate calculation
of "fertility" since the population used contains males and
also females outside child-bearing age, but the birth rate does give
the gross rate of increase of the population by births.
Fertility varies not only with age, marriage and its duration
but also with occupation and social class, with area of residence
(urban or rural) and with religion and several other factors. Some
attempt at correction for such variations is made by the RegistrarGeneral
with his "area comparability factor". Nevertheless, although
future fertility depends upon past fertility, this official "correction"
is unable to take account of human volition and, nowadays, the
position is further complicated by the fact that contraception is
becoming widespread throughout all classes. Long-term forecasts
of population changes inevitably become unreliable.