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18
POPULATION
The Registrar General's estimate of the mid-year population
for 1 962 is 98 ,240 , an increase of 1 ,250 over the estimate for the
previous year. The natural increase, that is the larger number of
births than deaths , would only account for 725 , but Hampstead has for
many years had a larger "floating" population than many other local
authority areas. The total estimated population is still somewhat
smaller than the Census figure for 1961 when the number was 98,844,
Although the general London report of the 1961 Census is now
published, the detailed report by enumeration areas which was
requested for Hampstead has not yet been received and a detailed
report on the findings is not therefore included in this report, but
some extracts from the tables are included in the statistical section
at the end of this report.
BIRTHS
The number of live births was 1 ,775 , an increase of 55 over
the figure for 1961. Of the total, 904 were boys and 871 were girls.
The number of live births per 1 ,000 of the population was 18.1 and
the adjusted birth rate, which takes account of the proportion of
women of child-bearing age and allows comparison with other areas
was 13. 8.
Of the births, 266 were illegitimate or 15 per cent, of the
total. This is an increase of 1.7 per cent, over the previous year,
which itself had shown a similar increase over 1960. This rise in
illegitimacy is a cause for concern. London as a whole tends to
show a higher figure than the rest of the country, partly because
unmarried expectant mothers come to London where they are not
known and where the facilities are extremely good. Nevertheless
the continued increase is substantial and whilst there is no cause for
anxiety on purely health grounds, one cannot help but be disturbed
on the moral issues involved.
The percentages of live births which were illegitimate
during the past ten years is given below, but it should perhaps be
mentioned that even the highest of these figures is substantially less
than the percentages for some other metropolitan boroughs last year.