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14
Births
The total number of live births registered during the year was
2,747 (1,433 male and 1,314 female). Of these 101 were illegitimate,
being a percentage of total births of 3.6. The number of live births
registered in each of the years from 1944 onwards was 3,473, 3,068,
3,934, 3,828, 3,226, 3,083, 2,848, 2,895, 2,895, 2,855 and 2,721.
848 births occurred in the district (837 live, 11 stillbirths). Of this
number 133 were to residents of other districts. 2,217 (2,169 live and
48 still) birth notifications were transferred from other districts, being
mostly of births occurring to Harrow mothers in hospitals in Middlesex
or in London.
The birth rate was 12.6. The local comparability factor for births
is 1.02; the corrected birth rate was therefore 12.8; that for the country
as a whole was 15.2.
The birth rate for many years has been falling, not merely in this,
but in most European countries, in the United States and in the Colonies.
In this country the fall has not, up to this, been reflected in a fall in the
population figure, because over the same period the death rate too has
fallen. Nevertheless, the nation was not reproducing itself. The fear
was that the population would fall; the fall having been established,
unless followed by a marked rise the population would decline markedly.
The fact that a nation is not reproducing itself is best shown by the use
of the net production rate, which is the ratio of the number of future
mothers who will be born to the present mothers. A figure of 1.00
means that at the prevailing birth and death rates 100 women will be
replaced by 100 of their daughters surviving to child-bearing in the next
generation. As long as the figure is less than unity, replacement is not
occurring. The rate before the war was well below unity. In 1939 it
was 0.808. After figures of 0.772 and 0.761 in 1940 and 1941, it rose
to 1.021 by 1944; the effective reproduction rate then fell to 0.936 in
the next year, but rose again to 1.138 and then to 1.244 in 1947. Since
then the figures have fluctuated over unity, being 1.035 in 1953. This
slight increase which is the first which has occurred since the post-war
peak of 1947 suggests the downward trend has come to an end, and a
stable level of natality has perhaps now been reached. Moreover the
level at which the birth rate has apparently stabilised is high enough for
replacement of the population.
Deaths
The Registrar-General arranges that the information about those
who have died outside the district in which they normally reside is transferred
to the Health Office of those districts. These numbers are added
to the deaths of those districts, corresponding reductions being made
from the deaths allocated to any districts in respect of those who died
in those districts, but who normally resided elsewhere.
Certain types of institutions are not regarded in ordinary circumstances
as the usual residence of those living there. These include
general, maternity and special hospitals, maternity homes, nursing
homes, sanatoria, convalescent homes, homes for unmarried mothers,