[Report 1950] / Medical Officer of Health, Dartford Borough.

  • Dartford (England). Borough Council
Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1950] / Medical Officer of Health, Dartford Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The cause for that part of the decline which is in step with the national trend can be explained by the fact that in the immediate post-war years the births were augmented by early marriages, which borrowed births from the future, and by births which had been postponed during war years which paid a debt from the past. A similar phenomenon occurred after World War I, For that part of the decline which has taken us below the rate for England and Wales in 1949 and 1950 (an inferior relation- ship which last appeared in 1936) we must look for some local explanation. The age constitution of the Borough’s population may offer this. The comparability factor which is given to allow comparison of the local birth rate with that of England and Wales bases the adjustment on the number of women between 18 and 44 years of age. Most of the child-bearing, however, is done by women aged 25 to 29 and the 1947 age constitution of the Borough population showed a smaller fraction of the young population coming into this age group than existed in the England and Wales figure. It seems, therefore, that the decline in birth rate to one below the figure for England and Wales is apparent rather than real and is due to adjustment taking insufficient notice of the more productive fraction of the child-bearing population. If the annual number of births in 1950, namely 327 males and 267 females, were maintained for several future decades and the expectation of life at birth were to remain at 66 years for males and 71 years for females (England and Wales figures for 1949), then the future population of the Borough would consist of 21,500 males and 18,9()0 females; the population in 1951 by sex is 19,317 males and 21,227 females, so that apart from a change in sex and age distribution numbers would remain much the same. The sex ratio of the 1950 births, 1,220 males to 1,000 females, was large. The ratio for England and Wales in 1950 was 1,060 males to 1,000 females. In 1947 there were more female births assigned to the Borough than males, a ratio of 950 males to 1,000 females. This subject will be discussed below. The illegitimacy rate was 40 per 1,000 live births, i.e. below the rate for England and Wales, as in former years—in 1950 by 9 per 1,000. This rate, however, does not complete the estimate of infants born to the risks of modified welcome—-4-5% of all legitimate maternities in England and Wales in 1949 were confined within 6J months of marriage and in first maternities this percentage was about trebled. 550 of the births assigned to the Borough occurred in the Borough and consequently we have details of these. Perusal shows that 80% were confined in Hospital, compared with 66% in 1948. There were 8 sets of twins. The distribution of the births amongst the occupational groups was as follows: — Dartford Borough. Mothers of 1950 births classified by occupation of husbands. England & Wales, 1931. Married women classified by husbands’ occupation. I. Professional workers, etc. 2.7% 2.7% II. Employers, teachers, etc 17.6% 16.1% III. Skilled artizans, fitters, lorry drivers, etc. 59.8% 48.2% IV. Agricultural labourers, horse drivers, etc. 7.3% 16.7% V. Unskilled labourers, etc. 12.6% 16.3% 100.0 100 0
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