Summary

The sources of data for the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency originate with the registrations of birth, death, and marriage. These are based on information provided to the Agency by parents, physicians, midwives, coroners, funeral directors, religious representatives, and marriage commissioners. This information is used by the Agency to register vital events, to issue certificates of birth, death and marriage, and to produce statistical reports. This information is of particular interest to health-care planners, managers, and service providers; it assists in the analysis of trends and the development of service plans for the future.

In the last half of the century, British Columbia has experienced considerable demographic and social changes. Since 1950, the population of the province has more than tripled, the live birth and stillbirth rates have decreased by 55% and 51% respectively, the marriage rate has declined by 45%, and there has been a 32% decrease in the death rate.

• There were 42,909 live births to B.C. residents in the province. This represented a decrease of 3.3% from 44,388 live births in 1997. The 1998 birth rate of 10.7 per 1,000 population was the lowest since 1950, and was less than half of the birth rate of the 1950s. This year was the first year that the birth rate has been below 11.0 births per 1,000 population.

• The province's 1998 Total Fertility Rate (TFR) was 1,432 births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age (15 to 44 years of age) which was the lowest rate since 1950. For the second year in a row, the fertility rate was below 1,500 and was about one third of the highest rate of 3,958 in 1959.

• There were 279 stillbirths in the province in 1998, a decrease from 335 in 1997. The crude stillbirth rate was 6.5 per 1,000 total births (live births and stillbirths) in 1998, which is about average for the 1990s.

• There were 27,791 deaths in British Columbia in 1998, an increase from 27,255 in the previous year. The crude death rate, 6.9 deaths per 1,000 population, was the same as the rate in 1997. The death rate has been consistently under 7.3 per 1,000 population since 1985.

• In 1998, the 42,909 births and 27,791 deaths in B.C. produced a rate of natural population increase of 3.8 per 1,000 population.

• In 1998 there were 173 infant deaths (age at death less than one year) in the province for an infant mortality rate of 4.0 per 1,000 live births, a record low rate for British Columbia. This was a decrease from 202 infant deaths in 1997. Infant mortality rates in B.C. have fallen dramatically to approximately one fifth of the rates seen thirty years ago.

• The average life expectancy in the province was 78.8 years both genders for the 1994-1998 period. For males the life expectancy was 76.0 years and for females it was 81.6 years.

• There were 21,749 marriages solemnized in the province in 1998. The 1998 crude marriage rate, 5.4 marriages per 1,000 population, was the lowest rate since 1950. In recent decades, there has been a trend towards delaying first marriages. The 1998 average age of first-marriage brides was 27.5 years old, while first-marriage grooms were, on average, 29.6 years old. The average age of brides and grooms, for first and later marriages combined, has also increased steadily in the past two decades.