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1.4% for 1961. In the age group 20/24 years, the 1961 percentages
of 57.3 and 30.9 have since risen to 58.0 and 35.7. In the absence
of statistics from the recent Census the latest available figures for
Greenwich are those given in the 1966 Census which disclosed
that, under 20 years of age, 7.5% of females and 1.6% of males in
the Borough were married. In the age group 20/24 years the
proportions were 57.4% and 30.7%.
During the last two decades, marriages have tended to be
contracted earlier, especially among females under the age of 20
years. Indeed, the number of wives in this age category has risen
from 41 in 1951 to 94 per 1,000 in 1970 and that of husbands has
almost doubled to a total of 28. Of every 1,000 Greenwich female
residents under 20 years of age in 1951, 45 were married compared
with the 4 males who were so wedded. By the 1966 Census these
figures had advanced to 75 and 16 respectively with the prospect
of further increases presaged in the 1971 Census.
More recently, in line with fashionable philosophy, younger
marriage, particularly among females in the age group 20/24 years,
has been losing momentum, the numbers of which have fallen from
259 per 1,000 in 1961 to a total of 254 for 1971. In contrast,
those for males in the same age group and over the same period
have risen from 158 to 174, a situation which conceivably could
have been influenced by the Family Law Reform Act of 1969.
This piece of legislation which, inter alia, was concerned with the
reduction of the age of majority from 21 to 18 years is likely, at
least initially to have imparted an impetus to earlier marriage in
males. For the year 1970 (the latest available) the mean age at
marriage for bachelor bridegrooms was 24.43 and for spinster
brides 22.38, both exemplifying this tendency for earlier marriage
when compared with the 1956 figures of 26.15 and 23.73. Marriages
in which both bride and bridegroom were under 20 numbered
36,472, an increase of almost 21% over 1969. In 1950, the total
was 5,479.
Divorce, etc.—During 1950, divorces or annulments, etc., in the
country aggregated 30,870. By 1970 this total had advanced to
58,239 of which 6,746 occurred in those whose marriages were
contracted under the age of 20 years, a figure which rises to 39,190
in those who married under 25 years of age. Statistically, youth
continues to be one of the greatest risks to stable marriage.
Births
By relating the number of births to the respective population of
a particular group, a birth rate is produced which proves to be a
convenient method of indicating the gross rate of increase of the
population by births.
However, this rate gives no guide to future effects of