View report page

39
However, this rate gives no guide to future effects of contemporary variations in fertility on the maintenance or otherwise of
the population or its age characteristics and, since the population
figure used in its computation not only contains males but also
females outside childbearing age, the birth rate should not be used
as an accurate calculation of fertility.
Live births registered in the Borough during the year totalled
4,109 and of this number 3,589 occurred in hospitals and 520 in
private dwellings. In 1,496 cases the parents resided outside the
Borough and these births were subsequently transferred to their
appropriate districts leaving a figure of 2,613. To this must be
added 650 births belonging to this Borough which took place in
institutions outside the Borough, thus making a final total for
Greenwich of 3,263, a decrease of 141 (4.1%) from that calculated
for the previous year. Of the total, 1,663 were males and 1,600
females, a proportion of 1,039 males to 1,000 females compared
with 1,058 for England and Wales.

The Birth Rate for the year, calculated on the figure of 3,263
live births, is 14.36 per 1,000 of the population, 0.50 lower than
that computed for 1968. With an area comparability factor of 1.04,
an adjusted rate of 14.93 is returned compared with 16.3, the figure
for England and Wales and 14.60 for the Greater London area.
Inner London returned an unadjusted rate of 15.7
Illegitimate Births
The degree of illegitimacy is usually evaluated by calculating
illegitimate births as a percentage of total live births. This is satisfactory