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17. This Table is to be read thus : out of each thousand of
the population there are under 5 years 136 in England and Wales,
L47 in Plumstead ; between 25 and 35, 147 in England and
Wales, 166 in Plumstead, and so on. From this Table it appears that.
Plumstead contains a specially large proportion of young children,
and of persons between 25 and 35 ; the excess of young children
is probably chiefly due to the low mortality of infants under 1
year, and the excess of persons between 25 and 35 to immigration
of married men for employment in the Arsenal.
18. The death rates of different places depend in large
measure on the distribution of the population, because people are
much more liable to disease and death at the extremes of life, and
least liable between 10 and 25. Thus the fact that the population
of children under 5 is specially large in Plumstead would tend to
cause an increased death rate, but the immigration of healthy
workers between 25 and 35 would perhaps tend to diminish it.
Judging from the great drop in the female population between
15 and 20 it appears probable that a large number of young
women leave the district to enter service at that. age. This again
would tend to increase the death rate. On the whole, as regards
any effect the age distribution may have on the death rate I
think we may say Plumstead is fairly comparable with England
and Wales.