英国出生率达40年来最高 或由于冬季变冷

　The figures show a winter baby boom has pushed up birth rates to levels not seen for nearly 40 years.

The number of women giving birth during the late months of the year has shot up by a fifth in a decade – faster than the increase during the summer.

Autumn births have been particularly high over the past two years, according to the analysis.

The months in 2010 with the highest fertility rates – the number of children for every woman of childbearing age – were September, at 2.11; October, at 2.09; and November, at 2.03. The lowest fertility rates were in April and May, with 1.92 and 1.93 for each woman.

The fertility rate is a figure that expresses how many children the average woman is likely to have over her lifetime.

It is worked out by dividing the birth rate in a particular period by the number of women of childbearing age.

This means that a spike in births will raise the rate for a particular month.

In October, the month last year with the greatest number of births, there were 64,542 newborns, an increase of nearly 27 percent over the same month in 2000.

By contrast, the 54,551 children born in the month with the lowest births figure in 2010, February, was a 16 percent rise over the same month in 2000.

Babies born during the autumn of last year were conceived during one of the coldest winters for years and January 2009 was the coldest since 1997.

Birth rates are now higher than at any point since the early 1970s and, as a result, the average woman can now expect to have at least two children.

"Some believe that the fertility rate was highest in September, October and November in 2010 because people were staying in more due to the bad weather the previous winter", a spokesman for the Office for National Statistics said.

据英国《每日邮报》11月10日报道，冬季婴儿出生热潮使得英国2011年的出生率达到了40年来的最高水平。

年底分娩的妇女数量在十年内激增了1/5——超过了夏季的增长速度。

据分析，在过去的两年中，秋季婴儿出生率一直持续居高。

2010年生育率最高的月份为——按照每个育龄妇女生育孩子的数量计算——九月，平均2.11个；十月，2.09个；十一月，2.03个。最低生育率出现在四月和五月，分别为平均每个育龄妇女生育1.92和1.93个孩子。

生育率反映的是平均每个女性在一生中可能诞育的孩子的数量。

它的计算方法是用特定时间内的出生率除以育龄妇女的数量。

这意味着特定月份的生育高峰会提高生育率。

十月是去年出生人数最多的一个月，共计有64542名新生婴儿，与2000年同月比较，增加了将近27%。

相比之下，2010年出生率最低的二月诞生了54551名新生儿，较之2000年同月，仅增长了16%。

去年秋季出生的婴儿是在多年来最冷的一个冬季孕育的，2009年1月是自1997年以来最寒冷的冬天。

英国现在的出生率正处于自20世纪70年代以来的最高点，因此，可以预计平均每个妇女将至少生育两个孩子。

“一些人认为，2010年的最高生育率之所以出现在九月、十月和十一月，是因为在2009年冬天，人们因为恶劣的气候更多地选择了呆在家中不出门”，国家统计局发言人这样说道。