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The peak of the war-time rise occurred in 1945, with a rapid reduction after the
end of hostilities. The Registrar-General has demonstrated in his Statistical Review of
England and Wales (Text 1940-1948) that this rise was more than balanced by a fall
in the numbers of pre-maritally conceived legitimate births and that, in fact, extramaritally
conceived maternities were a lower proportion of all maternities during the
war years than in 1938. The higher apparent rates of illegitimate births in London as
compared with England and Wales (in 1952 in London 11.6 live births per 1,000
unmarried women aged 15-45, as compared with 9.7 in England and Wales) seem
to reverse the position as found in the live births as a whole. In fact it is doubtful
whether the true illegitimate fertility rate in London is now as high as in the country
as a whole. Registrars must accept the residential addresses which they are given, and
it is known that a very considerable number of pregnant unmarried women come to
reside temporarily in London from the rest of the country, and also from Eire, for the
sole purpose of bearing their children in the anonymity of a large city. Such births are
allocated to London but the mothers are not, of course, part of the true residential
population. This factor, which has always been present, and has been accentuated since
the coming of the National Health Service, has the effect of considerably increasing the
London illegitimate fertility rate above its true value and concomitantly increasing,
but not so considerably, the total London fertility rate.
Deaths under one year among illegitimate infants amounted to 33 per 1,000 illegitimate
live births compared with a rate of 22 for legitimate births. The corresponding
rates in 1951 were 35 and 25 respectively. A detailed comparison of deaths in the
legitimate and illegitimate groups is given in Table 6 (page 177).
Still-Births
There were 1,008 still-births in 1952 or 19.2 per 1,000 of all births (legitimate 18.6,
illegitimate 27.2). The number of still-births and the rate per 1,000 total births in each
year since 1931 is shown in Table 5 (page 176), from which it will be seen that after
remaining stable for many years the still-birth rate fell sharply in 1943 and continued
to fall until 1948, since when it has remained fairly stable.
Mortality
The total deaths in 1952 amounted to 40,368, or 12.0 per 1,000 of the population.
Detailed figures are given in Tables 2, 30 & 4 (pages 173-6). Mortality from infectious
diseases is discussed below under that heading and tuberculosis is dealt with separately
(see page 21). For the latter and other principal causes of death the trend is indicated by
the diagram on pages 10-11.*
*The sharp changes that occurred between 1939 and 1940 are attributable to two causes. In the first place, the
Registrar-General abandoned the rates of selection which had hitherto operated in multiple causes of death, and, as from
1940, accepted the principal cause of death as shown on the medical certificate. In addition, the International List of