§ Mr. A. Edwardsasked the Minister of Health whether he will set out, in the form of a table, the reproduction rates, for the five years 1938 to 1942 for England and Wales, the Dominions, India, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., respectively.
§ Mr. WillinkThe calculation of a reproduction rate is an involved operation and the result depends to some extent upon the method and assumptions adopted by the calculator According to a procedure employed by the Registrar General, the annual births of England and Wales since 1938 have been provisionally assessed in terms of the following effective reproduction rates:
1938 … … … .810 1939 … … … .808 1940 … … … .772 1941 … … … .761 1942 … … … .853 1943 … … … .903 I regret that I am unable to supply comparable figures in respect of the other countries named in the Question.
§ Mr. A. Edwardsasked the Minister of Health whether he has any information 426W regarding fluctuations in the reproduction rate in countries occupied by Gerany.
§ Mr. WillinkSo far as I am aware any available statistics of births and deaths in respect of the countries occupied by Germany are not sufficiently complete or trustworthy to justify any attempt to assess them in terms of reproduction rates.