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8
Vital Statistics
The Registrar General has estimated that the population of
Lambeth at the mid-year 1950 to be 231,000, which is 1,600 more
than the previous year. The natural increase by births less deaths
is 1,150.
The following table shows the actual numbers and the percentages
of deaths in various age groups and it will be observed that
nearly 38 per cent, of all deaths were in the age group 75 years and
over. Seeing that the value of the pensions looked forward to by
almost everybody depends upon how much can be produced by the
younger generations (pensions will not buy what is not for sale in
the shops) and also seeing that the proportion of elderly to young
is rising so fast, either the output by the young must increase in
proportion or the elderly must remain at work after the pensionable
age if the standard of living is not to fall. All experience shows
that the old people are happier and live longer if they remain at
work and so keep in touch with friends and work mates. It is the
old who lose touch that cause so much trouble for themselves and
all who wish to help them. The 23 clubs run on a voluntary basis
by the Lambeth Old People's Welfare Association are primarily
concerned in seeing that lonely old people have interests and friends
outside the home, something to hold them back from taking the
first step—the failure to keep themselves clean and tidy—which
so soon ends in living in insanitary conditions and a complete
inability to improve. A compulsory removal order and detention
for three months in an institution is almost inevitably followed by
death. Old people give up all desire to live when they lose their
home—that is the personal belongings and furniture with which
their lives have been so closely intertwined and so long. Like plants
torn up by the roots and bedded in new surroundings they seldom
thrive. Homes attractively furnished and decorated are not an
alternative always welcome to the old.
All ages 0-1 1-5 5-15 15-25 25-45 45-65 65-75 75 andover
2,725 111 17 9 22 160 650 729 1027
100 4.08 0.62 0.33 0.81 5.87 23.85 26.75 37.69
per cent, per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent.
The principal causes of death were heart disease 917 (817) or
33.65 per cent. (29.86 per cent.) of the total deaths, cancer 485
(473) or 17.80 per cent. (17.29 per cent.), and influenza, bronchitis