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6
LIVE BIRTH RATE IN ENGLAND AND WALES
AND LONDON (A.C.) 1931-1950
PER 1,000 TOTAL POPULATION
Illegitimacy

The peak of the war-time rise occurred in 1945, with a rapid reduction after the
end of hostilities. The percentage for 1950 taken together with those for the two
preceding years indicates that the rate is now fairly stable.
Deaths under one year among illegitimate infants amounted to 38 per 1,000
illegitimate live births compared with a rate of 2.5 for legitimate births. The
corresponding rates in 1949 were 41 and 26 respectively. A detailed comparison of
deaths in the legitimate and illegitimate groups is given in Table 6 (page 142).
Still-births
There were 1,054 still-births in 1950 or 19.4 per 1,000 of all births (legitimate
18.9 illegitimate 25.5). The number of still-births and the rate per 1,000 total births
in each year since 1928 is shown in Table 5, from which it will be seen that after
remaining stable for many years the still-birth rate fell sharply in 1943 and though
it has since followed a downward trend there has been in no year an improvement
comparable with that between 1942 and 1943. Possible reasons were reviewed
in the report for 1946, where it was suggested that an improvement in the health