London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1900
Forty-fifth annual report on the health and sanitary condition of the Borough of Islington
This page requires JavaScript
28
1900]
As the significance of death-rates are not generally very well understood, and as the statement that it fell from say 20.0 per 1,000 to 18.0, seems such a small thing in itself it may be of advantage to take the last fifteen years and to translate in figures what the deaths would have been in each year if the population had been in each of these years the same as it was in 1900. These results are given in the following statement:—
| Years. | Recorded Deaths. | Deaths which would have occurred if the population had been the same as in 1900. |
|---|---|---|
| 1886 | 5,434 | 6,352 |
| 1887 | 5,699 | 6,584 |
| 1888 | 5,197 | 5,929 |
| 1889 | 5,035 | 5,675 |
| 1890 | 6,152 | 6,850 |
| 1886-90 | 27,517 | 31,390 |
| 1891 | 6,326 | 6,970 |
| 1892 | 6,075 | 6,620 |
| 1893 | 6,391 | 6,889 |
| 1894 | 5,263 | 5,613 |
| 1895 | 5,760 | 6,078 |
| 1891-95 | 29,815 | 32,170 |
| 1896 | 5,884 | 6,142 |
| 1897 | 5,395 | 5,555 |
| 1898 | 5,705 | 5,828 |
| 1899 | 6,293 | 6,360 |
| 1900 | 5,721 | 5,721 |
| 1895-1900 | 28,998 | 29,609 |
| Gross Total | 86,320 | 93,169 |
Here we see from the figures in the third column that the improvement in the
death-rate means that if in each year the population had been 352,491 as in 1900,
but with the same death-rate that obtained in those years, there would have
occurred in five years, 1886-90, 31,390 deaths instead of 27,517; in the five years,
1891-95, 32,170 instead of 29,815; in the five years, 1895-1900,29,609 instead of
29,998; and finally in the fifteen years, 1886-1900, there would have been registered
93,169 deaths instead of 86,320 or a difference of 6,849 deaths.
This is quite a fair method of comparison, because it shows in actual figures
the real difference between one year and another. It is evident that it would
be very unfair to compare the number of deaths in any one year with those of
another without making an allowance for the difference in the size of the population,
although in the same borough, just as it would be equally unfair to contrast
the number of deaths in one town with those of another town without making a
similar allowance.
The Meaning of the 1900 Death-rate.—The true meaning of the
death-rate of the year will be better appreciated when it is pointed out that if so