‘Steady decline’ in births

GONE ARE THE DAYS when doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) saw a large number of births.

According to head of paediatrics Dr Clyde Cave, over the past five to six years birth rates have declined from an average of 300 to 250 per month.

In 2007, he said, the number of births recorded and reviewed by the QEH was 3 258. There was a slight increase the next year to 3 279. But since then, there has been a steady decline, down to 2 596 in 2015.

Minister of Education Ronald Jones has been speaking about the drop in the number of students writing the Common Entrance Examination and attributing it to the declining national birth rate. (TG)

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