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14
The intra-parochial death rate, that is, the death rate calculated
on the number of Finsbury persons who actually died inside the
Borough, is 11.3, as compared with 11.1 in 1903. This figure is
of course of no value except for local comparative purposes.

These death rates are "crude" or uncorrected death rates, that is
to say they are calculated merely on the number of deaths per 1,000
of the population in Finsbury. They do not take cognizance of the
relative numbers of the sexes nor of the age distribution of the
population. Yet this is necessary for purposes of comparison with
other districts on account of the fact that the mortality among
young children and old people is higher than amongst adults, and
also higher among males than females. Therefore it is evident that a
district containing many young children and old people would have
a higher death rate than a district composed more largely of young
adults and females. It is this characteristic which makes
"correction" necessary, The Registrar-General in his annual
summary gives the "factor for correction for sex and age distribution"
in the seventy-six great towns of England and Wales, and
the Medical Officer of Health of the Administrative County of
London gives a corresponding factor for each Metropolitan
Borough. For Finsbury the factor is 1 04563, and the true or
"corrected" death rate for this Borough, which shows the mortality
of each sex at different age-periods, is 22. per 1,000 living.