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Note. —The following extract from a previous report explains
Table E:—
" Since the mortality per thousand living is much greater among
children under 5 and old people, and is higher at practically all ages
among men, it follows that a community which has a preponderance of
these elements will have, ceteris paribus, a higher death-rate than one
which has not.
" The age and sex distribution of the population of England and
Wales being taken as a standard to all communities within their borders,
the death-rates of different localities can be calculated on the assumption
that they have the same proportion of children under 5, old people, and
women as have the population of England and Wales. By thus eliminating
this disturbing factor of age and sex distribution different communities
can be brought into strict comparison with one another.
" In 1883 the Registrar-General commenced a method of correcting
the death-rates of the great towns of England and Wales. Taking
account of the differences of age and sex distribution between these and
the latter, he has calculated a factor for each great town by which the
recorded death-rate must be multiplied so as to allow for the differences
of age and sex, and thus places them as regards these matters on an equal
footing. You thus get death-rates the difference in which we can put
down to general sanitary conditions alone. In illustration of this I have
taken the above figures from the Registrar-General's Annual Summary
for 1912 to form Table E.
" It will be seen from this that in London and the Boroughs the
correction raises the death-rate, showing that there is in them a preponderance
of people living at ages when the death-rate is low (viz., between
5 and 50), and also of women, sufficient to keep the recorded death-rate
down, notwithstanding the great number of children under 5."