Steady rise in ex-nuptial births

Press, 6 September 1984, Page 25

Steady rise in ex-nuptial births

NZPA staff correspondent

London The number of ex-nuptial births increased steadily in Britain to one in six children last year, according to the Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys in London.

In 1980, the number of babies born to unmarried mothers was slightly more than the 13 per cent of births to married mothers, compared with 19 per cent in 1983.

The O.P.C.S. suggested that a cause for the rise in ex-nuptial births was the increasing numbers of couples who for tax or other reasons, lived together unmarried.

It pointed to a rise in the proportion. of ex-nuptial births registered by both parents, implying that they

were still living together. This rose from 46 per cent in 1972 to 59 per cent, but it did not keep up with the increase in ex-nuptial births.

As a measure for Victorian times the ratio of exnuptial births in 1850 was one to 15, compared with the supposedly immoral Edwardian days when it was only one to 25.

The publishing director of “Burke’s Peerage,” Harold Brooks-Baker, said the figures proved “what we have been saying — that the only hope of Britain having enough babies to survive as a nation lies with its bastards.” This was first said as a specific reference to the dwindling numbers of the English aristocracy.