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Report notes B.C. births rising; Liam, Emma the king of names

B.C. births are on the rise according to the annual report from the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency.

Good news for those worried about declining birth rates in the province.

B.C. births are on the rise according to the annual report from the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency.

The agency released its annual report this week, with all the statistics from the 2011, the year in births.

"I am proud to call British Columbia home and so are more and more people," said Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid in a press release. "The number of births in British Columbia is growing and British Columbians also enjoy the longest life expectancy in Canada, with life expectancy of 82 years old."

The government press release explained that the 140th edition of the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency Annual Report contains information collected from registrations of births, deaths and marriages that happened in 2011. Information from the report is used for various aspects of health planning, research and education.

The report notes, among other things, that:

• The most popular names for babies born in British Columbia in 2011 were Liam and Emma;

• The most widely selected names for boys were Liam, Ethan, Mason, Lucas and Benjamin. The top five names for girls were Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Ava and Chloe.

• In 2011, there were a total of 43,991 births in B.C., up from 43,670 in 2010;

• Life expectancy in British Columbia is the highest in Canada at 82 years for 2007-11, up from 81.7 for 2006-10. The provincial population also grew naturally by 12,215 in 2011, or at rate of 2.7 per thousand, not counting migration.

The report can be found at: www.vs.gov.bc.ca/stats/annual/

A small sampling of the report includes such information as:

• Births by age of mother and live births by birth order;

• Total live births by age of father, age of Mother and out-of-wedlock;

• Live births by birth weight, gender, and gestational age;

• Live births by local health area and mode of delivery;

The report also looks at 2011, the year in death in B.C. The report states the total number of deaths in B.C. in 2011 was 31,776, up from 31,151 in 2010. The leading cause of death was cancer. The oldest person to die in British Columbia in 2011 lived to be 112.

Other 2011 death information includes:

• The number of HIV deaths continues to fall in B.C. In 2011, there were 59 HIV deaths, down from 253 in 1996;

• Causes of death by gender and age in 2011;

• Twelve leading causes of death in B.C., 2006-2010 and 2011;

• Leading causes of death by age and gender in B.C. In 2011;

And much more.



Barry Coulter

About the Author: Barry Coulter

Barry Coulter had been Editor of the Cranbrook Townsman since 1998, and has been part of all those dynamic changes the newspaper industry has gone through over the past 20 years.
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