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Unfortunately the Registrar General's area comparability factors do not take account of a very
important factor which seriously affects the comparison of some aspects of the incidence of births as
between one area and another; namely the marital status of the women of child-bearing age in each. This
was recognised by the Registrar General as long ago as 1954, when he wrote: "The A.C.F. simply allows for
the varying proportion of women of child-bearing ages in the aggregate local population, but not for many
other factors, e.g. the proportion of the women who are married. Adjustment for the latter is required if
the object is to compare fertility levels of married women in different areas."
Particularly during the last ten years concern has been expressed regarding the number of illegitimate
births occurring in London as a whole and especially in Westminster where the proportion of illegitimate to
total births has appeared exceptionally high when compared with other areas in London and elsewhere.
Many reasons have been adduced to explain this including the assumption that a large number of pregnant
unmarried women come to the Metropolis to seek anonymity and because the facilities for care during
pregnancy and for confinement are better than elsewhere. There is probably some truth in these assertions,
and certainly no one would wish to minimize the problem of illegitimacy. Before, however, one can say
that an undue proportion of births are to unmarried mothers, it is necessary to know the proportions of
married and single women of child-bearing age in the local population.
In September 1971, an interesting and illuminating article dealing with the national proportion of
illegitimate births appeared in the Quarterly Bulletin of the Greater London Council Intelligence Unit. The
article was written by Mr. Eric J. Thompson who at that time was a member of the Strategy Branch of the
GLC Department of Planning and Transportation.
In the article Mr. Thompson put forward a suggestion that new Area Comparability Factors which he
had formulated should be applied to local crude birth rates to eliminate differences due to variations in
both age and marital status within the population.
In London, Mr. Thompson suggests that differences in marital status may be even more important than
differences in age structure. This is certainly borne out in Westminster. Taking the year 1969, the latest for
which Mr. Thompson gives figures, the percentage of births in Westminster recorded as illegitimate (the
illegitimacy ratio) was 17.63 compared with 8.41 for England and Wales. When, however, we allow for the
very high proportion of the women of child-bearing age in Westminster who are unmarried, we find that the
number of illegitimate births is less than would be expected for a comparable number of unmarried women
taking the population of England and Wales as a whole. If, therefore, we apply Mr. Thompson's formula we
find that for comparison purposes the illegitimacy ratio for Westminster in 1969 ought to be 6.52 which is
below the national figure of 8.41 quoted above.
Although more work has to be done to validate these new Area Comparability Factors which are
necessarily based on census figures which require updating, it is reasonable to assume that the composition
of the population in Westminster has not changed so much in the last few years as to render the results they
give unacceptable. If, therefore, we apply the same factor to the illegitimacy ratio for 1971 we find once
again that the adjusted ratio of 6.3 compares favourably with the national figure of 8.0.
In the case of the birth rate the effect of allowing for the low proportion of married women of child
bearing age in Westminster, though less dramatic does materially reduce the variation from the national
average. Applying Mr. Thompson's Area Comparability Factor (age and marital status) the adjusted birth
rate for 1971 instead of being 8.17 would become 12.04 which though still low approaches more nearly to
the national average rate of 16.0.
I wish to acknowledge the work of Mr. Thompson and to express my appreciation to him for allowing
me to quote from his article.
A critical examination was also undertaken during the year of another set of statistics. For some years it
has been said that the number of children in Westminster immunised against various diseases is low and
indeed the lowest in the country. Having regard to the known number of immunisations carried out in the
Council's clinics it was felt that considerably more children were being immunised than were shown in the
Department of Health's statistics. One of the Council's Area Nursing Officers therefore carried out a
thorough examination of the immunisation statistics and I am pleased to include her report in my Annual
Report (see page 52). The findings of this examination lead to the conclusion that far from being the lowest
in the country the immunisation rate in Westminster is very high.