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In 1956 there were 906 live babies born in Coulsdon and
Purley,(478 boys and 428 girls) which was 63 more than in 1955.
As the number will obviously depend in part on the number of
people in the District, we find it best to speak of the number of
births for every 1,000 residents and that figure is known as the
Birth Rate.
The preceding table shows what the recent Birth Rate has
been and compares it with the averages since 1920. The most
noticeable thing is that this rate was much higher for 1940-49,
and that is why so many more schools have had to be built since
the war.
The Birth Rate of a District like this cannot be compared
with, say Manchester, unless allowance is made for the proportion
of the residents who are young married couples and therefore more
likely to have babies. The Registrar General, who is responsible
to the Country for dealing with these statistics, therefore decides
each year on a "comparability factor" for each District, and if
the simple or crude Birth Rate is multiplied by this, the "corrected
Birth Rate" results. This should be comparable with the corrected
rate for any other area or with that for the whole of England and
Wales. The Birth Rate for the latter was 15.6 in 1956, whereas
the corrected Birth Rate in this District was 14.6.
Illegitimacy.—- The mothers of 21 babies(7 boys and 14
girls) born in 1956 were not married at the time the births
occurred. This means that only 2.3% of the 1956 babies were
illegitimate at birth. The smaller this proportion, the better the
chance of a good start in life for the District's babies.
Stillbirths.— Last year 13 babies were not born alive,
(10 boys, 3 girls). The Stillbirth Rate is best expressed as the
number born dead of every 1,000 born, whether alive or dead, and
in 1956 this rate was 14.1 in this District and 22.9 in England
and Wales.
DEATHS.
Just as every birth has to be registered by the Registrar, so
too, since 1836 has every death, the doctor stating what caused
the death.
We note first that there were 931 deaths in this District
during the year(392 males, 539 females) that being 14 more than
in 1955. From this figure we calculate the Death Rate, i.e. the
number of deaths per thousand population(14.0) and thanks to
the Registrar General's "comparability factor" obtain the corrected
Death Rate of 9.1 which should be comparable with the Death
Rate of England and Wales of 11.7.
It will be seen that the correction reduces the local Death Rate
considerably and this is because the proportion of our residents
who are elderly and thus more likely to die is greater than in the
Country as a whole. This is also one of the reasons why in the
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