[Report 1942] / School Medical Officer of Health, Bury County Borough.

  • Bury (Greater Manchester, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1942
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1942] / School Medical Officer of Health, Bury County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/40 (page 7)
    THE DECLINE IN A FACTOR FOR SECURITY IN THE FUTURE. As staled in this Annual Rei'>ort. llie birth rale in lObi was 15.00 ])er 1,000 population, which’ is a rale rejwe'-enling a total of S50 registered births. Since the population of Ihirv has noi varied very mucirover the last fifty or sixty years, it is of interest to contrast the number of lunhs in the }-ear under revie^^• tvith the nuinlvrs of lu'rths in <.'lher years. Still of UKii'e serious imj^ort is to give careful thought to the most significant feature in the history of this town—that is the decline in. the annual number of births during recent decades. The highest number of births recorded in thi.s borough was l,H8b in 1887. In the succeeding years ilw numbers of 1 births diminished in jn'ogressive and almost regular steps. .Vbout the lime of extreme trade de']wessior. in the town, in 1890 and 1891, the annual number of births was apju'oximalel.y ‘2'00 less than in 1887. Trade revival in the town in ]81\) and 1897, when it was said to be difficult to find an empty house in the borough, bnmght no increase of lu'rths in its train, since immediately following, the number of children born in one year decreased still further .ami was 2ii0 births a year less than in the trade depression and post-trade depression years. This doNMiward trend continued unchecked, and in the next, decade 'the average annual number of births was again reduced by about *200. In the following decade this was re]>caled, another average of about 200 less births per annuni ttas found when compared with the average number a year in the previous decade. This brings us to more recent times. Since 1917 onwards, including a short and sharj) increase, which proved tran>itory, in 1920 and 1921, when there was an average annual number of 1,000 births, and the td>ruj)t rise in 1912 (859 l.urths), the average number of I'irtlis has been remnd* about 8ii(). The smallest number of births registered in tl:e borough w.is 710 in 193.5. The ])re-war period ' 1912-1911 {average number of births 1,2no jter .annum) showed a 60 per cent, excess over the average number, 750 births a year, in the coinjjaralile period 19-17-19.‘19. 'I'he war years 1915, 1016, and 1017 examined in nnne detail recorded 1,026, 900 and 776 regi.'>tered births Tc.-'pec-tively, and exceeded the corres- ponding war years 1910, 1911, and 10l2 with 728, 75:1, .and 859 births fw over 15 per cent. No doufit on the cessation of the present hostilities and with the readjustment of family life another increase sucli as was witnessed in 1920 and 1921 will take ])lace, and ])er]iai)S will make another replenish- ment which may prove just as tran.-itory. vSo much for figures. Much has been written about the falling birth r.ate during the last fifty years, but ajiparentlv nothing much ha.s been done to check it, tind this will lie the first jiroblem to attack on return to normality, as it is a matter above all else in imjiortance if we are to suiwive at all. Honest and sincere endeavours will have to be made to lireak the vicious chain of circ'umstances wherel)\' a nation is jirevented from ex- jianding. In these days an increa.NC in the ]K)]nilation in this country dejiends more or less directly u]ion the creating of new peojile-, although this was not entirely true fifty years ago, when infantile mortality was comparatively heavy. The continuance of new life depends ujion a country’s jiower of su])porting and c.'iring for new generations, and herein is the key of the solution to the problem. What has this country to offer by way of inducement to married people to bring uj) larger families ? I