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Appendix I. to Annual Report.
Report of the medical Officer of healh.
Gentlemen,
The Registrar-General in his Annual Summary for 1898
estimates the population of London at the middle of that year
to be 4,504,766, and he further reports that during the fifty
two weeks ending December 31st, 1898, the total number of
births registered in London amounted to 132,432, and the total
number of deaths to 83,936. Last year it was necessary to
point out that the birth-rate for 1897 was the lowest on record;
this is, however, no longer true, for the rate in 1898 was lower
still, being 29.5 per thousand, instead of 30, as it was in the
previous year. The marriages numbered 42,016, compared
with 41,223 in 1897, the rate per thousand of the population
being accordingly raised from 18.5 to 18.7.
The deaths, as stated above, amounted to 83,936, and
corresponded to a rate of 18.7 per thousand, comparing
favourably with the average rate for the previous ten years,
which is 19.7. This total just mentioned includes the deaths of
those Londoners who died in institutions outside London, but
it also includes the deaths of 1,899 strangers who had been
admitted into London hospitals and infirmaries from districts
outside Registration London. By excluding these deaths the
death-rate of London is reduced to 18.3 per thousand.
On page ii. are shown the births and deaths, together with
the birth-rate and death-rate for the whole of London, arranged
in tabular form, the deaths of Londoners who died in institutions
outside its boundaries being included.