RECORD LOW BIRTHRATE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4406, 18 October 1934, Page 3

RECORD LOW BIRTHRATE.

1933 DOMINION FIGURES. New Zealand’s birth-rate reached the lowest level on record last year. It has declined uninterruptedly ever since 1920, but the latest statistics show a considei’able slowing up in the decline. The number of babies born in 1933 was i 24,334-(550 fewer than in 1932) and the birthrate was 16.59 a thousand of population, compared with 17.09 the previous year. Fifty years ago the birth-rate was 36.28 so that there has been a flal of 54 per cent. Had the fecundity of the population last year been the same as -50 years previous, 53,200 babies would have been born instead of 24,334. Two lots of triplets were born in addition to 251 pairs of twins, *■ so that one mother in every 95 had twins or triplets instead of individual children. The report states that the likelihood of twins or triplets becomes greater with increasing age, except toward the end of the child-bearing period. ' Of every 1000 children registered 46 were born out of wedlock, compared with 51 in 1932 and an average of 49 for the preceding 10, years. The Maori birth-rate is not only considei’ably higher than the European rate, but is also increasing in contrast to the declining European rate. J