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47
However, determinations of fertility and therefore of future
population are of vital importance to governments for the framing
of policies in connection with family and other allowances, to
hospitals for the provision of adequate and suitable facilities, to
local authorities who may wish to plan maternity services, nurseries,
schools, housing, etc., and to the Medical Officer of Health who
needs to know the effect of these variables upon the health of the
public, generally.
Live births registered in the Borough during the year totalled
4,911 and of this number 4,091 occurred in hospitals and 820 in
private dwellings. In 1,844 cases the parents resided outside the
Borough and these births were subsequently transferred to their
appropriate districts leaving a figure of 3,067. To this must be added
655 births belonging to this Borough which took place in institutions
outside the Borough, thus making a final total for Greenwich of
3,722, a decrease of 191 from that calculated for the previous year.
of the total, 1,913 were males and 1,809 females, a proportion of
1,057 males to 1,000 females.

The Birth Rate for the year, calculated on the figure of 3,722
live births, is 16.11 per 1,000 of the population, 0.79 lower than
that computed for 1964. With an area comparability factor of
1.04, an adjusted rate of 16.75 is returned compared with 18.1 and
17.9 for England and Wales and Greater London respectively.
Illegitimate Births
The degree of illegitimacy is usually evaluated by calculating
illegitimate births as a percentage of total live births. This is satisfactory
for the short term assessment but if the legitimate rate is
declining and the illegitimate remains constant, there will be an
apparent but not necessarily a real increase in illegitimacy.