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CAM 14
Camberwell
1909 10
Report of the medical Officer of Health.
To The Worshipful the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Camberwell.
Gentlemen,
The population of London according to the estimate of the
Registrar-General amounted at the middle of the year 1909 to
4,833,938 persons, compared with 4,795,757 at the corresponding
period of 1908. During the fifty-two weeks which are officially
reckoned as this year there were 116,559 births, compared with
122,898 registered during the fifty-three weeks of 1908, so that
there is a decline in the actual number with a co-existent lowering
of the birth rate to 24 - 2, which is stated to be the lowest on record.
The number of deaths registered within the limits of the County
of London was 68,266, but it is necessary to revise these figures by
the exclusion of the deaths of 3,162 persons, who, although dying
within its boundaries, cannot be truly reckoned as Londoners, while
there must be the inclusion of 2,528 deaths of inhabitants of the
County who happened to die in institutions outside. When this readjustment
has been made it appears that there is a total of 67,632
deaths belonging to the County of London which have to be reckoned
with in the calculation of the death-rate. In 1908 the corresponding
number, but which included the deaths for an extra week, amounted
to 67,352, so that there is a slight increase in the number of deaths
over last year.
The need, however, for caution in accepting the estimated popuation
on which depends the reliable calculation of the birth and
death-rates, is even greater than last year. The Registrar-General
states "That estimates of population referring to a date over eight
years subsequent to that of the last census are necessarily unreliable."
It is now nine years since the enumeration of the population
took place, and it is probable that many surprises are in store for us
when the next census comes to be taken. One thing, however, is
tolerably certain, viz., that the rate of increase which obtained in
1891-1901 has not continued. Estimation in the intercensal period
becomes increasingly unreliable according to the distance from the
enumeration, and now, as we are so far removed from a reliable
datum, the estimate, together with the birth-rate and the deathrate,
must not be accepted as anything more than reasoned guesses.
We have, as before, estimated the population by the assessment
method rather than that based on the assumption that the rate of
increase has been the same as in 1891-1901, for the actual recorded
number of births would lead us to reject this theory, and the first
method we have found by the experience of previous years to be the
more accurate. As previously explained, it consists in multiplying