View report page

6
It will be seen that out of some 538,100 persons aged 60 years and over, 60.7 per
cent. comprised heads of private households ; of these 20.1 per cent. were living alone
while 22.1 per cent. were couples living alone of which at least one was an aged person.
49.9 per cent. of the old people were married, while 11.3 per cent. were unmarried
males and 38.8 per cent. unmarried females. As would be expected as the result of two
World Wars and higher female survival rate, the number of aged unmarried females is
nearly four times that of unmarried males.
Among the 20.1 per cent. of aged persons living alone, 14.6 per cent. were unmarried
females and 3.8 per cent. unmarried males ; here again a proportion of nearly four
females to one male. The number of aged persons in the community, of which at present
42.2 per cent. are either living alone or comprise married couples living alone, will
increase yearly and is likely to intensify the problem of care of the aged in the future.
Fertility
The total births allocated to London for 1953 were :
Live 50,880
Still 1,091
Total 51,971
The live birth-rate in 1953 was 15.2 per 1,000 total population, compared with
15.3 in 1952. Births allocated to London, i.e., those of mothers residing within the
County are less than those actually registered as occurring in the County owing to the
fact that a number of mothers come to London to be confined. This excess of registered
over allocated births amounted to some 7,500 births in 1953. The corresponding figure
in 1952 was 7,900.
The number of marriages registered in London in 1953 was 32,925 or 19.7 persons
married per 1,000 of the total population, compared with 19.9 in 1952.
The birth-rate in London tends to follow the same trend as for the country as a whole.
The diagram (page 7) shows the course of the two rates since 1933. The actual rates
for London are given in Table 5 (page 148).
The live birth-rate for London has continued to fall since the decline started in 1948
but the rate of decline seems to be slowing down. The live birth-rate for the country
as a whole on the other hand has risen slightly, also for the first time since 1948. As has
been stated in earlier reports, the proportion of women of child-bearing age (15-45) in
the population is greater in London than in England and Wales as a whole (23.8 per cent.
as compared with 21.7 per cent. according to the 1951 Census) and hence the true
disparity in the fertility of the two populations is greater than would appear from the
crude figures of 15.2 and 15.8 live births per 1,000 total population, respectively. The
fall in the London population in recent years has been in part among the younger adults
and in fact the proportion of women of child-bearing age has fallen from 23.8 per cent.
in 1951 to 23.5 per cent. in 1952 and 23.2 per cent. in 1953 which goes some way towards
explaining the divergence in the course of the live birth rates in London and England
and Wales.