London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1906
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1906
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10
periods, it was thought that the value of these localised statistics would be enhanced by adopting
the ward, in place of the sanitary district, as the unit for calculation of the death-rate, and this was
done.
The ward-rate in 1906 (entire year) is set out below; the rate in each of the thirteen four-weekly periods in the table at page 16.
| North Kensington: | per 1,000 persons living. | |
| St. Charles | 387 deaths = 17.4 | |
| Golborne | 437 deaths = 16.3 | |
| Norland | 460 deaths = 19.3 | |
| Pembridge | 280 deaths = 14.3 | |
| South Kensington : | ||
| Holland | 252 deaths = 12.1 | |
| Earl's Court | 234 deaths = 12.8 | |
| Queen's Gate | 106 deaths = 7.3 | |
| Redcliffe | 201 deaths = 10.6 | |
| Brompton | 140 deaths = 9.7 |
The Corrected or True Death-rate.—The death-rate, 13.9 per 1,000, as calculated above,
is a crude or uncorrected one, not taking cognizance of the relative number of the sexes, nor of the
age-composition of the population. Correction for these data involves addition to, or subtraction
from, the "recorded death-rate," as compared with the "standard death-rate." * The necessity
for such correction is obvious, having regard to the great excess of females in the population, and to
the lower death rate in the female sex as compared with the rate in the male sex. That excess in
1906 was approximately 39,080. The deaths among the 70,210 males were 1,172 and those among
the 109,290 females 1,325. The crude death-rate in the male sex was 16.7 as compared with the rate
of 12.1 in the female sex. It is obvious, therefore, that if the numbers of the sexes had been equal,
the death-rate would have been higher than the recorded rate. The Registrar-General, in his Annual
Summary, gives the "factor for correction for sex and age distribution" in each of the Metropolitan
Boroughs. Corrected after the manner indicated, the death-rate of Kensington in 1906 becomes,
instead of 13.9, one of 14.9 per 1,000 ; and the rate for London, as a whole, 15.9 instead of
15.1. The "true" death-rate is that which shows the mortality per 1,000 living of each sex at
different age-periods, as set out in the subjoined table.
The True Death-rate of Kensington, 1906.
| Age-Period. | Population. | Deaths. | Death-rate. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Both Sexes. | Males. | Females | Both Sexes. | Males. | Females. | Both Sexes. | Males. | Females | |
| Under five years of age | 14,377 | 7,169 | 7,208 | 693 | 358 | 335 | 48.2 | 49.9 | 46.5 |
| Five and under 15 | 26,317 | 12,798 | 13,519 | 54 | 28 | 26 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 1.9 |
| Fifteen and under 25 | 38,850 | 13,679 | 25,171 | 80 | 46 | 34 | 2.1 | 3.4 | 1.4 |
| Twenty-five and under 35 | 35,542 | 11,677 | 23,865 | 139 | 61 | 78 | 3.9 | 5.2 | 3.3 |
| Thirty-five and under 45 | 25,218 | 9,594 | 15,624 | 211 | 100 | 111 | 8.4 | 10.4 | 7.1 |
| Forty-five and under 55 | 18,466 | 7,335 | 11,131 | 255 | 120 | 135 | 13.8 | 16.4 | 12.1 |
| Fifty-five and under 65 | 11,758 | 4,659 | 7,099 | 308 | 142 | 166 | 26.2 | 30.5 | 23.4 |
| Sixty-five and under 75 | 6,222 | 2,341 | 3,881 | 357 | 167 | 190 | 57.4 | 71.3 | 49.0 |
| Seventy-five and upwards | 2,750 | 958 | 1,792 | 400 | 150 | 250 | 145.5 | 156.6 | 139.5 |
| Totals | 179,500 | 70,210 | 109,290 | 2,497 | 1,172 | 1,325 | — | — | — |
* The expression "standard death-rate" signiBes the death-rate at all ages, calculated on the hypothesis that the rate
for each sex, at each of twelve age-periods in each town, were the same as in England and Wales, during the 10 years 1891-1900;
he rate at all ages in England and Wales during that period having been 18.2 per 1,000.