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I am indebted to the British Medical Journal for the following
Extract, which is based upon the Quarterly Summaries of the
Registrar General:—
THE DEATH-RATES OF LONDON SANITARY
AREAS DURING 1899.
In the accompanying table will be found summarised the
vital statistics of the forty-three sanitary areas of the
Metropolis, based upon the Registrar-General's returns for
the year 1899. The mortality figures relate to persons
actually belonging to the various sanitary areas, and are
the result of a complete system of distribution of deaths
occurring in the public institutions of London among the
various sanitary areas in which the patients had previously
resided.
The 133,120 births registered in London during 1899 were
equal to an annual rate of 29.4 per 1,000 of the population,
estimated at 4,546,752 persons in the middle of that year ;
this rate was lower than in any of the ten preceding years,
during which the birth-rate averaged 30.7 per 1,000.
Among the various sanitary areas the birth-rate showed, as
usual, wide variations, owing principally to the differences
in the sex and age-distributions of their populations. In
St. George Hanover Square, St. James Westminster,
Hampstead, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Strand, and City of
London the rates were considerably below the average ;
while they showed a marked excess in St. Lukes, Bethnal
Green, Whitechapel, St. George-in-the-East, Mile End Old
Town, and Bermondsey sanitary areas.
The deaths of persons belonging to London registered during
last year were 87,530, equal to a rate of 19.3 per 1,000 of
the population, against 18.2, 17.7, and 18.3 in the three
preceding years; this rate was 0.9 per 1,000 below the
mean rate in the ten preceding years 1889-98. The lowest
death-rates last year in the various sanitary areas were
11.6 in Hampstead, 12.7 in Stoke Newington, 14.2 in St.
George Hanover Square, 14.3 in Plumstead, 15.1 in Lee,
and 15.3 in Wandsworth ; the highest rates were 24.9 in