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REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH,
For the Year ended December,1891.
To the Board of Works for the Hackney District.
Gentlemen,
The basis of all calculations as to death rates is the
number of the resident population, which was shown at the last
census year to be considerably in error, for all England, London,
and most of the districts of inner London, as regards the estimated
population during 1881-90. The great comparative increase in
the population of London over the rest of England has been for the
first time diminished, as the London increase was at a "somewhat
lower rate than the rest of England and Wales" during this period
of 1881-90. This shows better hope for the future that the overcrowding
of certain cities will not in future occur in so great a
ratio, and that increased mortality and sickness from that cause—
overcrowding—will diminish. At the same time the smaller proportion
of country people in the prime of life entering cities will
tend to increase the proportionate number of urban deaths. The
population of Hackney has increased in the ten years from 186,462
to 229,531, and of inhabited houses, from 27,476, to 33,187.
The increase of population was not, however, equal to that in
former periods, as in 1861-71 it was 50.0 per cent., in 1871-81,
49.2 per cent., and in 1881-90 only 23.l per cent. I had not