In 1735 bishops were charged with the collection of annual birth and deaths records from parsons. In 1838 records began specifying number of births by sex. Further itemisation according to legal status at birth was taken up from 1850. From 1853 it was possible to distinguish the number of live born children by mothers age as well as by whether the child was born in marriage or outside marriage. Parsons annual population counts were discontinued with the founding of the National Register of Persons in 1952, from which extensive information on births has been gathered since. Information on births reaches the National Register of Persons from hospitals.