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CHAPTER I.
VITAL STATISTICS.
1. The population of the Borough mid-1950 was estimated by
the Registrar-General to be 132,700—Civilian, 132,800—Total. In
1931 (the last census date) the population of the two districts,
Wembley and Kingsbury, was 65,197; in 1937 the population had
become 114,700, while the last December, 1950, estimate of the
Registrar-General is that the population is 132,700. Wembley is
the fifth largest County district in Middlesex, those of greater
population being according to size—Harrow, Ealing, Willesden and
Hendon.
2. In 1950, 1,587 live births were recorded, giving a birth
rate of 11.91 per thousand. The number of deaths was 1,030
giving a crude death rate of 7.76 per thousand estimated population.
The infantile mortality rate was exceedingly low, the death
rate of infants per thousand live births being the record one of
17.01, the previously lowest figure having been 21.75 in 1949.
3. Prematurity of birth and congenital malformation are
the main causes of the deaths in very young infants. Much consideration
is being given to the problem of prematurity and the
possibility of saving premature births at the present time, and
from the Wembley figures it is obvious that attack on this problem
is now practically the only way one may expect a decrease in
infant mortality rates in the Borough.
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