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28
1899]
and Wales) by 0.2 per 1,000. It is also lower than the death-rate
of the 33 Great Towns, which includes London, by as much as 2.4
per 1,000; it is also below that of the same towns less the Metropolis
by 2.5 per 1,000; and it is identically the same as the death-rates
experienced in the 67 Other Large Towns, not included among the
Great Towns. The London death-rate is higher than it by 1.3 per
1,000, and only 14 out of the 42 Metropolitan areas occupy so good
a position in the mortality bills.
Because of the great difference between one town and another
in the age distribution of the population (for example vide Table IV.,
page 15) the recorded death-rates, also called crude death-rates,
require to be corrected before they are rightly available for comparative
purposes. In the two following Tables (XIII. and XIV.)
factors are given for the necessary corrections both for the 33 Great
Towns and for the Metropolitan Sanitary Areas. By multiplying
the crude death-rates by these factors the corrected death-rates are
obtained. In calculating the "comparative mortality figure" given
in the fifth column the death-rate of England and Wales has been
taken as the standard, and as 1,000, and the corrected death-rate
has been reduced to a figure comparable with that number. This
column in these tables may be read as follows: After making
approximate correction for differences of age and sex constitution,
the same number of lives that in the year 1899 gave 1,000 deaths
in England and Wales as a whole, gave 1191 in the 33 Great
Towns, 855 in Croydon, 984 in West Ham, 1,019 in Derby, 1,053
in Islington, 1,183 in St. Pancras, 1,580 in Liverpool, and 1,675
in St. Luke.
It is, therefore, in the light of these corrections that comparisons
between the several places mentioned in the two subsequent
tables should be made.