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19
The True Death-Rate in 1899.—From time to time
observations are made which indicate misapprehension of the
signification of the expression "death-rate" as used in the
table at page 18, which shows the rate of mortality for each of
the four-weekly periods covered by the monthly reports. It
may be well, therefore, to explain by an illustration what is
really meant. The deaths in the last four-weekly period of
the year were 331, and the death-rate was stated to be 25.0
per 1,000. This statement implied, simply, that if the deaths
for the whole of the year had been in the same proportion to
the population as in the four weeks, the annual death-rate
would have been 25.0 per 1,000 of the estimated population at
the middle of the year. The estimated population in 1899
was 172,400: the deaths registered were 3,021: the death-rate
therefore, was 17'5 per 1,000 (3,021÷172,400=17.5). This
method of calculating the death-rate is customary, and is that
used by the Registrar-General. The death-rate so calculated
is, of course, a crude or uncorrected one, as it does not take
cognizance of the relative numbers of the sexes, nor of the agedistribution
of the population. Correction for these data
involves addition to, or subtraction from, the "recorded
death-rate," as compared with the "standard death rate."*
The necessity for such correction in this parish is obvious,
having regard to the great excess of females in the population,
and to the lower death-rate in the female sex as compared
with the rate in the male sex. As has already been stated,
females are, approximately, 36,180 in excess of males. The
deaths among the 68,110 males (1,430), were 161 fewer than
the deaths among the 104,290 females (1,591). The death-rate
in the male sex was 21.0 per 1000, as compared with a rate of
* "The standard death-rate" signifies the death-rate at all ages, calculated on
the hypothesis that the rates at each of twelve age-periods in each town were the
same as in England and Wales, duting the 10 years 1881-90, the death-rate in
England and Wales during that period having been 19.15 per 1,000. RegistrarGeneral's
Annual Summary.