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Lord James Douglas-Hamilton
asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of total live births in Scotland for each of the last 20 years was represented by children who were born to unmarried parents.
Mr. John MacKay
The information is as follows:
| Illegitimate births: 1965–84 | |||
| Total births | Illegitimate births | Percentage | |
| 1965 | 100,660 | 5,883 | 5·84 |
| 1966 | 96,536 | 6,160 | 6·38 |
| 1967 | 96,221 | 6,663 | 6·92 |
| 1968 | 94,786 | 6,998 | 7·38 |
| 1969 | 90,290 | 6,733 | 7·46 |
| 1970 | 87,335 | 6,712 | 7·69 |
| 1971 | 86,728 | 7,029 | 8·10 |
| 1972 | 78,550 | 6,661 | 8·48 |
| 1973 | 74,392 | 6,520 | 8·76 |
| 1974 | 70,093 | 5,349 | 9·06 |
| 1975 | 67,943 | 6,314 | 9·29 |
| 1976 | 64,895 | 6,025 | 9·28 |
| 1977 | 62,342 | 5,968 | 9·57 |
| 1978 | 64,295 | 6,304 | 9·80 |
| 1979 | 68,366 | 6,960 | 10·18 |
| 1980 | 68,892 | 7,678 | 11·14 |
| 1981 | 69,054 | 8,447 | 12·23 |
| 1982 | 66,196 | 9,395 | 14·19 |
| 1983 | 66,078 | 9,581 | 14·72 |
| 1984* | 65,106 | 10,640 | 16·34 |
| *Provisional figures. | |||