INCREASE IN BIRTH-RATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19771, 19 February 1927, Page 8

INCREASE IN BIRTH-RATE

FIGURES FOR URBAN AREAS DEATH-RATE ALSO INCREASED According to figures compiled by the Government Statistician, the birthrate in the 14 urban areas of the Dominion during 1926 shows an increase for the first time in six years, being 19.24 per thousand, as against 18.95 in 1925. The statistics of births and deaths covering the whole Dominion for 1926 arc not yet available. As, however', the urban areas comprise, approximately 50 per cent, of the total population of the Dominion a good indication can be obtained as to the general position. The urban areas, in the aggregate, invariably have a somewhat lower birth-rate and somewhat higher rates of deaths and of infantile mortality than the Dominion as a whole. The Dominion birth-rate figures for the first nine months of the year 1926 show a slight decrease over the same period of the previous year, but as a great proportion of the increase in the urban area figures occurred during the latter three months of the year it is yet possible that a similar occurrence in the Dominion figures will result in an increase in the general birth-rate. The urban death-rate also shows an increase over 1925 —9.33 per thousand as against 8.85 —mainly due to the winter epidemics of influenza and whooping cough, which took a substantial toll of lives. There can be little doubt that the general death-rate wil also be in excess of that recorded during 1925. The urban figures for infantile mortality, on the other hand, indicate that the Dominion rate for 1926 will approximate the remarkable succession of low rates established in recent years.