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Ministry of Health
Table, Low Birth Weight Live Births by Age of Mother and Gender

[Click here to download a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet of the above table]

Table, Live Births by Birth Weight and Age of Mother

HIGHLIGHTS TO TABLE 15/FIGURE 11
  • In 1999, there were 1,981 live births with low birth weight (less than 2,500 grams). The provincial low birth weight (LBW) live birth rate was 47.46 per 1,000 live births in 1999.

  • Among 1999 live births, 4.7% of the 21,540 male births had low birth weight (1,008) and 4.8% of the 20,199 female births had low birth weight (973).

  • Of the low birth weight live births, 50.9% were males.

  • Mothers aged 25-29 had the lowest LBW rates (40.80 per 1,000 live births) in 1999, followed by the 15-19 and 20-24 maternal age groups (44.33 and 46.11 low birth weight births per 1,000 births respectively). The LBW rates by maternal age groups (shown in Figure 11) does not include the less than 15 and 45 or over age groups as the number of births per group were five or less. The LBW rates by maternal age groups (shown in Figure 11) showed a steady increase from age group 25-29 to age group 40-44.