+------------------+-----------------+-----------------------+
| | Illegitimate | Illegitimate Births |
| | Births. | per 1000 of Unmarried |
| +------+----------+ Women and |
| | No. | Per 1000 | Widows between |
| | | of Pop. | 15 and 45. |
+------------------+------+----------+-----------------------+
| Districts: | | | |
| Principal Town | 4318 | 7.14 | |
| Large Town | 1029 | 5.58 | |
| Small Town | 1724 | 6.23 | |
| Mainland-rural | 2099 | 9.08 | |
| Insular-rural | 136 | 5.88 | |
+------------------+------+----------+-----------------------+
| Shetland | 31 | 5.30 | 7.0 |
| Orkney | 29 | 5.99 | 7.7 |
| Caithness | 84 | 9.96 | 19.4 |
| Sutherland | 28 | 6.81 | 10.1 |
| Ross and Cromarty| 74 | 4.40 | 6.9 |
| Inverness | 145 | 8.02 | 11.5 |
| Nairn | 18 | 10.29 | 13.2 |
| Elgin (or Moray) | 169 | 15.66 | 26.3 |
| Banff | 202 | 12.93 | 25.4 |
| Aberdeen | 1083 | 12.38 | 24.2 |
| Kincardine | 93 | 8.15 | 17.0 |
| Forfar | 676 | 9.43 | 14.2 |
| Perth | 215 | 7.93 | 10.8 |
| Fife | 308 | 4.56 | 9.7 |
| Kinross | 20 | 9.95 | 22.2 |
| Clackmannan | 53 | 6.69 | 10.9 |
| Stirling | 235 | 4.91 | 13.2 |
| Dumbarton | 163 | 4.14 | 9.7 |
| Argyll | 148 | 10.07 | 12.7 |
| Bute | 30 | 8.36 | 9.2 |
| Renfrew | 410 | 4.46 | 8.5 |
| Ayr | 499 | 6.23 | 14.3 |
| Lanark | 2872 | 6.28 | 15.9 |
| Linlithgow | 99 | 3.88 | 15.4 |
| Edinburgh | 930 | 7.23 | 11.0 |
| Haddington | 66 | 5.92 | 11.8 |
| Berwick | 60 | 9.63 | 12.7 |
| Peebles | 21 | 6.18 | 7.9 |
| Selkirk | 46 | 9.13 | 11.5 |
| Roxburgh | 83 | 8.67 | 9.8 |
| Dumfries | 218 | 12.51 | 19.9 |
| Kirkcudbright | 92 | 10.71 | 15.7 |
| Wigtoun | 106 | 12.79 | 22.5 |
+------------------+------+----------+-----------------------+
| Scotland | 9306 | 7.05 | 14.1 |
+------------------+------+----------+-----------------------+
Table V. gives the illegitimate births to 1000 births in England and
Wales for the ten years 1897-1906 and for the year 1907. Table VI. gives
the "corrected" rate for certain three-year periods. In connexion with
these tables the following extract from the Registrar-General's _Report_
for 1907 (p. xxx.) is important.
"It is difficult to explain the variations in the rates of
illegitimacy in the several counties. It may be stated generally that
the proportion of illegitimate children cannot alone serve as a
standard of morality. Broadly speaking, however, the single and
widowed women in London, in the counties south of the Thames, and in
the south-western counties have comparatively few illegitimate
children; on the other hand, the number of illegitimate children is
comparatively high in Shropshire, in Herefordshire, in Staffordshire,
in Nottinghamshire, in Cumberland, in North Wales, and also in nearly
all the counties on the eastern seaboard, viz. Suffolk, Norfolk,
Lincolnshire, the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire, and Durham. In
the Registrar-General's Report for the year 1851 it was assumed that
there was an indirect connexion between female illiteracy and
illegitimacy. This may have been the case in the middle of the last
century, but there is no conclusive evidence that such is the case at
the present day. The proportions of illegitimacy and the proportions
of married women who signed the marriage register by mark are
relatively high in Staffordshire, in North Wales, in Durham and in the
North Riding of Yorkshire; on the other hand, in Norfolk, in Suffolk
and in Lincolnshire there is a comparatively high proportion of
illegitimacy and a low proportion of illiteracy."