Some regularities in the experimental angular distributions of inelastically scattered deuterons (Ed ∼ 11.8 MeV) corresponding to the lowest 2+ states of the even nuclei 12C, 20Ne, 22Ne, 24Mg, 26Mg, 28Si, 32S, 40A, Ti, 52Cr, Fe, 58Ni, Zn, Kr, Sr and Zr are discussed. BLAIR’S phase rule is approximately valid for strongly deformed nuclei in the region of 24Mg, whereas it is not valid for the other nuclei. The latter also results from DWBA calculations which have been carried out for nuclei with mass number A ≧ 40, using a real coupling potential. Several different sets of optical parameters have been used for the calculations and it is found that the extracted deformation parameters depend considerably on the choice of the optical potential.