About 50,000 illegitimate children are born yearly in the United
Kingdom. Consider what this means. In the course of a single generation
of twenty years one million of these unprotected little ones are born,
branded because their parents have acted illegitimately.[235:1]
The exact figures for England and Wales[235:2] during the past five and
a half years are as follows:
Illegitimate
Percentage
Year Total Births Legitimate Illegitimate Total
1913 881,890 848,981 37,909 4.29
1914 879,096 841,767 37,329 4.24
1915 814,614 778,369 36,245 4.44
1916 785,520 747,831 37,689 4.79
1917 668,346 631,336 37,010 5.54
1918[235:3] 332,547 312,587 19,960 6.0
It should be noted that in England still-born births are not registered;
were these recorded the illegitimate birth-rate would be much higher
than the present statistics show. In those countries where the records
are kept the number of still-born illegitimate births is always very
high, sometimes twice as high--as it is for children born under the
protection of marriage.