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39
Live births registered in the Borough during the year totalled
4,611 and of this number 3,921 occurred in hospitals and 690 in
private dwellings. In 1,733 cases the parents resided outside the
Borough and these births were subsequently transferred to their
appropriate districts leaving a figure of 2,878. To this must be
added 722 births belonging to this Borough which took place in
institutions outside the Borough, thus making a final total for
Greenwich of 3,600, a decrease of 115 from that calculated for the
previous year. Of the total, 1,856 were males and 1,744 females,
a proportion of 1,064 males to 1,000 females.

The Birth Rate for the year, calculated on the figure of 3,600
live births, is 15.62 per 1,000 of the population, 0.48 lower than that
computed for 1966. With an area comparability factor of 1.04, an
adjusted rate of 16.25 is returned compared with 17.2, the figure for
England and Wales and 15.8 for the Greater London area. Inner
London returned an unadjusted rate of 17.7.
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.
It would appear generally to be the case that illegitimacy is
greatest when social standards, cultural and material, are low and.
collectively, factors such as an insecure family life, poor and overcrowded
homes, lack of direction and personal drive in life, etc.,
seem to be implicated.
In London, rates tend to be higher than that for the country as
a whole possibly by reason of a higher proportion of single females