1957*
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
Total ...
:
:
:
:
Male
· Female
Total
11
18
29
26
60
86
33
64 ·
97
32
95
127
63
121
184
65
112
177
46
99
145
51
60
111
47
76
123
45
60
105
39
54
93
458
819
1,277
* From 22nd July 1957 (date of first entry).
It will be seen from the above that with the exception of 1965 there has been a continuous fall in the number of adoptions registered each year since the peak of 184 was reached in 1961. Another notable feature is that more female than male children have been adopted every year. The overall decline in adoptions may owe something to the fact that the number of babies abandoned by their parents has been steadily declining, while the fact that more girls than boys are adopted may be due to the fact that until very recently the majority of abandoned babies were girls. Of the 1,277 children adopted since the Adoption Ordinance came into force, 410 were under two years old, 103 two years old, and 187 three to four years old. Thus 700, or more than half of the total number of children adopted, were under five years old when adopted. The remaining 577 were distributed among the age groups as follows, 5-9 322, 10-14 178, and 15-20 77. In the cases of joint adopters and sole female adopters the adopters fall mainly into the category of no stated relationship. In the case of sole male adopters, however, the father is usually the adopter.
179. A comparison of the statistics for the last five years (1963-67) with those for the first five and half years (22.7.57–31.12.62) after the Ordinance came into force reveals, in addition to the trends noted in paragraph 178, that:
(1) the majority of adopters in both periods were joint adopters,
and
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