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1
[1916
REPORT
OF THE
Medical Officer of Health
FOR THE YEAR 1916.
Population.—The Registrar-General has given two estimates of the
population of the Borough for the year 1916. One is inclusive of the men
who have joined the Army, and the other only of those persons, men and
women, who remained at home. On the former statistic the birth rate has
been calculated, and on the latter, the death rate. They are as follows:—
Population (inclusive of military) 336,589
„ (non-inclusive of military) 309,359
The larger figure is the total population, based on the assumption that the
ratio between the total and the civilian population is the same in the
borough as in England and Wales as a whole. With a view to approximation
to the population amongst which the births have occurred, the total
population of England and Wales for this purpose has been calculated by
adding to the estimate for 1914, the natural increase up to the middle of the
year 1916.
Probably neither estimate is correct, for it is inconceivable that the
population, which at the census numbered 327,403 and was on the downward
grade, should since the war began have begun to increase. The figures, in
the opinion of the Medical Officer of Health, are unreliable in both cases, but
the more reliable are those which do not include the military. He thinks
this unreliability is clearly indicated by the fact that whereas in 1911, the
year in which the census was taken, and, therefore, the year when calculations
could be made on an almost exact population, the marriages numbered 2,843,
and the persons married rate, commonly called the marriage rate, was 17.37,
yet in 1916, although the number of persons married was 8 per cent, more,
the marriage rate was increased by only 5 per cent. Clearly then, there must
be an error in the figures on which the rates have been calculated. Hence
after the war, or whenever the next census is taken, they must be carefully
reviewed and corrected.