View report page

Illegitimacy

With a greater proportion of women of child-bearing age and fewer of them
married in London than in the country generally, there is a greater exposure to the risk
of illegitimacy. Nevertheless, this does not account for the illegitimate rate being nearly
double that of England and Wales. Some part of the London excess is due to unmarried
mothers making their way to London to bear their children in the shelter of the
anonymity of a large city and to take advantage of the facilities available therein. In
1957 the voluntary associations who care for the unmarried mother (see pages 53, 54
for details of this work) saw 631 such women; of these 219 were from Eire, 81 were
West Indians and 41 were of foreign nationality. In addition, there were amongst
women seeking such assistance 833 who were not natives of the United Kingdom,
namely 413 Southern Irish, 292 West Indian and 128 of foreign nationality ; of these
656 were normally resident* in London. These must be minimum figures—there will
have been others who did not seek assistance from the voluntary organisations.
Mortality
The total death rate at 11.4 per 1,000 population is slightly lower than the previous
year, 11.7; the latter figure is the average post-war death rate. However, although the
rate for 1957 was about average, as can be seen from Figure 2 it had a markedly different
seasonal pattern from the normal—in the March quarter mortality was exceptionally
low because of the mild winter (sec table V.4, page 22) whereas in the December
quarter mortality was exceptionally high. The epidemic of Asian influenza, which
reached a peak in October, was followed by a higher than average level of deaths for
the time of year, especially deaths from diseases of the respiratory system (Asian influenza
in London is discussed in more detail on page 16).
The detailed causes of death by age and sex arc shown in table V.3, page 21.
* Had lived in London 12 months before making contact with Moral Welfare Association.
7