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231
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.
It may be desirable again to summarise briefly the plain and
outstanding characteristics of I lie public health of Finsbury which
emerge from the large body of facts contained in the foregoing
Report, in order to take, so to speak, a birds-eye view. Particularly
may this be useful to those who find it difficult to read such
a Report as this and assimilate its facts and figures. And, in the
first place, reference may be made to the chief items in the vital
statistics.
The population is declining. In 1861 it was 129,031. Five
years ago, at t.lie census, it was 101,463. Now it is estimated at
98,207. The birth rate too is declining. In 1901 it was 32 per
1,000 of the population. In 1905 it had fallen to 291. The Report
contains a number of particulars (pp. 13-15) respecting the home
conditions of many of these young children.
The corrected death rate for the year was the lowest on record,
namely, 19.5 per 1,000 persons living (p. 18), which compares
favourably with the Borough death rate of last year (22.0), the
highest in London. The death rate for the whole of London in
1905 was 15.6 per 1,000, so that Finsbury is still much above the
Metropolitan average. Out of the total number of deaths in the
Borough (1,900), 886, or 46 per cent., that is nearly half the total
number, occurred in hospitals, workhouses, infirmaries, asylums,
etc. (p. 19). The following table of comparative returns sets out
these figures :—
Institutions in which deaths
took place.
Percentage of
Finsbury deaths,
1905.
Percentage of
Finsbury deaths,
1904.
Percentage of
deaths in all
London, 1004.
1. Workhouses and Workhouse
Infirmaries
28.4 26.8 18.1
2. Fever Hospitals
(Met. Asyl. Board)
1.5 1.5 1.4
3. Other Hospitals
14.8 14.7 12.7