London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Bethnal Green 1896

Report on the sanitary condition and vital statistics of the Parish of St. Matthew, Bethnal Green during the year 1896

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I am indebted to the British Medical Journal for the following
Extract:—
THE DEATH-RATES of LONDON SANITARY AREAS in 1896.
" In the accompanying table will be found summarised the
vital statistics of the forty-three sanitary areas of the
Metropolis, based upon the Registrar General's returns for
the year 1896. The mortality figures relate to the deaths
of persons actually belonging to the respective sanitary
areas, and are the result of a complete system of distribution
of deaths occurring in the public institutions of
London among the various sanitary areas in which the
patients had previously resided.
The 135,796 births registered in London during 1896 were
equal to an annual rate of 30.2 per 1,000 of the population,
estimated at 4,421,955 persons in the middle of that year.
In the three preceding years the birth-rate was 30.9, 30.l,
and 30.5 per 1,000 respectively, In the various sanitary
areas the birth-rates showed, as usual, wide variations,
owing principally to the differences in the age and sex distribution
of their populations. In Kensington, St. George
Hanover Square, St. James Westminster, Hampstead, St.
Martin-in-the-Fields, and London City, the birth-rates
were considerably below the average; while they showed
a marked excess in St. Luke, Shoreditch, Bethnal Green,
Whitechapel, St. George-in-the-East, Mile End Old Town,
and St. George Southwark sanitary areas.
The deaths of persons belonging to London registered during
the year were 81,721, equal to an annual rate of 18.2 per
1,000 of the population, against 20.9, 17.4, and 19.4 in the
three preceding years. The rate in 1896 was 1.6 per 1,000
below the mean rate in the ten preceding years, 1886-95,
and with one exception was lower than in any year on
record. The lowest death-rates last year in the forty-three
sanitary areas were 11.9 in Hampstead, 12.7 in Stoke Newton,
13.4 in Lee, 13.6 in St. George Hanover Sqnare, 14.3