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18
Births are a prime factor in the national well-being, and this
rapid decline in our national birth-rate cannot be viewed without
concern. A large part of the decline is undoubtedly due, however,
to the later age at which women marry. The proportion of childbearing
married women between 15 and 25 to those between 25
and 45 must now be very much less than it was 30 years ago, and
on this account the decline in the birth-rate, thus estimated, is
less serious than it appears.
ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS.
The illegitimate births, which last year had risen from 12
per 1,000 births in 1902 to 21 per 1,000, show a still further
increase this year, namely, to 24 per 1,000.
This is rather a sad index of the changing character of
Willesden, for although the rate is well below that of England
and Wales, it is a rate which is increasing, whereas the rate for
England and Wales is diminishing, as is shown in the following
table:—