INCREASE IN BIRTH RATE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28742, 13 November 1958, Page 22

INCREASE IN BIRTH RATE

Record Number Of Triplets

Live births registered in New Zealand during the nine month? ended September 30, were 44.353. an increase of 1096, or 2.53 per cent, on the same period in 1957 according to the Government Statistician (Mr J. V. T. Baker) The number of cases of live triplets born in the nine months of 1958 is exceptional. Registrations for the year have already equalled the previous record figure of eight sets recorded in 1951.

Live births registered in the quarter ending September were 15,025 giving a rate of 26.26 a thousand of the mean population. The rates for the third quarters of 1957 and 1956 wert 26.38 and 25.81.

Deaths registered in the September quarter were lower than the average for the quarter ovei the last seven years. Total deaths registered for the quarter were 5976, a rate of 10.44 a 1000 ol mean population. The rates for the corresponding quarter ol 1957 and 1956 were 11.50 and 11.16, while the average rate for the third quarters of the five years 1953-57 was 10.93. The total of deaths registered for the nine months ended September 30 this year (15,403) was 179 lower than that for the same period in 1957 (15,582). Still-births for the Septembei quarter numbered 238, giving the low rate of 15.59 a 1000 births Infant deaths (under one year* for the period were 400—26.62 a 1000 live births. There was an increase of 507 marriages in the quarter over the figure last year of 3348. Marriages registered during the nine months of 1958 numbered 13,113, an increase of 262 over the same period last year.