View report page

district, whether occurring within or outside the district, was 743 (831). The illegitimate
live births were 55 (42). There were 10 stillbirths (11), 8 legitimate, 2 illegitimate.
A fall in the birth rate (live and still) is recorded from 15.73 in 1958 to 14.23 in 1959.
The birth rate is the number of births ner 1,000 of the total population.

To make an approximate allowance for the way in which the sex and age distribution
of the local population differs from that for England and Wales as a whole, the birth rate is
multiplied by a comparability factor supplied by the Registrar-General. The corrected live
birth rate was 14.6. The corresponding rate for the whole of England and Wales was 16.5.
The illegitimate birth rate was 74-0 per 1,000 live births.
Infant Mortality
Infant mortality, i.e. the number of children dying before reaching the age of one year,
rose in 1959. The same total number of infants died, i.e. seventeen, but as the number of
births was less the rate per 1,000 live births rose from 20.73 in 1958 to 22.88. Of these 17
deaths, 2 died at home and 15 in hospital. Thirteen infants (7 male and 6 female) died within
the first four weeks after birth. Table V gives the causes of infant deaths under the age of
one year. Graph A, on infant mortality rates, shows the trend of the infant mortality rate
since 1900. The infant mortality rate for Middlesex County was 19.4 and the infant mortality
rate for England and Wales as a whole was 22.0, the lowest ever recorded in this country.
For the first time it appears that the Southall rate has gone above that for Middlesex and
also above the national average. One infant death recorded by the Registrar in 1959 occurred
in 1958 as a result of the aeroplane crash incident in Kelvin Gardens, Southall.
12