Most illegitimate children are born to parents who choose not to marry but live together in stable relationships, according to Government figures published yesterday.
Far fewer teenage girls who become pregnant and then register details of the father, marry while they are pregnant, than 12 years ago.
But the proportion of births to teenage girls registered as illegitimate on the information of both the mother and father increased four-fold between 1973 and 1983, from 11 to 40 per cent. The increases were smallest for teenage girls in the non-manual social classes, the figures show.
A sample of births registered during last year and 1983 has shown that most parents jointly registering illegitimate births were resident at the same address. This was particularly so of those aged over 20.
"From this it seems likely that the mother and father had a stable relationship and were taking joint responsibility for the welfare of the newly-born child," the report says.
Such jointly registered illegitimate births now represent 61 per cent of all illegitimate births in England and Wales.
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