Illegitimate
Births.		Percentage of
Illegitimate to
Total Births.		 Illegitimate
Births.		Percentage of
Illegitimate to
Total Births.
1860 9,7369.2218959,2047.28
186511,2629.9619008,5346.49
187011,1089.6319018,3596.32
187510,7868.7319028,3006.28
188010,5898.5019038,2956.21
188510,6808.4719049,0106.79
1890 9,2417.6019059,0826.91
19069,3067.05

Table IX.—Scotland 1906.

Illegitimate
Births		 Illegitimate Births
per 1000 of Unmarried
Women and Widows
between 15 and 45.
No. Per 1000
of Pop.
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.”

Table X.—Ireland. Proportion per cent of Illegitimate Births.

1903.1904.1905.1906.1907.
Ireland2.62.52.62.62.5
Leinster2.62.62.72.72.7
Munster2.32.22.32.22.1
Ulster3.33.43.53.53.3
Connaught0.50.70.70.70.6

Table XI.—Ireland 1907.

County.No. of
Illegitimate
Births.		Per cent of
Total Births.
Leinster—
  Carlow 273.56
  Dublin 341.15
  Dublin Co. Borough3143.29
  Kildare 221.46
  Kilkenny 543.29
  King’s242.07
  Longford 111.23
  Louth 272.01
  Meath 302.27
  Queen’s181.70
  Westmeath 191.57
  Wexford 894.11
  Wicklow 372.91
Munster—
  Clare 231.04
  Cork Co. and Co. Borough1511.69
  Kerry 511.34
  Limerick Co. and Co. Borough1073.14
  Tipperary N.R. 191.49
  Tipperary S.R. 663.32
  Waterford Co. and Co. Borough 683.69
Ulster—
  Antrim2305.08
  Armagh 993.49
  Belfast Co. Borough3553.13
  Cavan 271.54
  Donegal 541.36
  Fermanagh 413.15
  Londonderry Co. and Borough1454.35
  Monaghan 241.55
  Tyrone1163.80
Connaught—
  Galway 32 .80
  Leitrim 10 .77
  Mayo 21 .45
  Roscommon 9 .50
  Sligo 9 .52
  Leinster 7162.67
  Munster 4952.11
  Ulster12723.32
  Connaught 81 .60
  2564

This latter conclusion may be carried further by saying that in those European countries where elementary education is most common, the rate of illegitimacy is high, and that it is low in the more illiterate parts, e.g. Ireland and Brittany.