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3
METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF CHELSEA
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
King' s Road,
Chelsea, S.W.3.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my first annual report on the
health and sanitary circumstances of the Borough for the year 1950.
I took up my appointment on 27th February, 1950, when my
predecessor, Dr. W.H.L. McCarthy, who had been acting in a temporary
capacity since June of the previous year, retired after some twentysix
years service with the Council.
I should like to make the following general observations on
the public health statistics:-
The population of the Borough continues to rise, and is estimated
by the Registrar-General to be 52,490, compared with 51,990 in 1949.
The figures for this year, however, include military personnel stationed
in this area. These are believed to total approximately 150. The
actual increase in civilian population can, therefore, be assumed to be
350.
The total number of births decreased from 875 (Males 479
Females 396) in 1949, to 829 (Males 426 - Females 403), a difference of
46. It will be noticed that male births fell by 53, whilst female
births increased by 7. The birth rate for the year was 15.8.
Still Births increased by 7 compared with 1949, when the figures
were Males 9, Females 8. They now read - Males 12, Females 12.
The Death rate (12.2) also shows an increase over 1949 (11.1).
Nevertheless it is satisfactory when compared with the rate of 14.6 for
1939, whilst during the period of hostilities, much higher rates
obtained, due in no small measure to enemy action. If the populations
of all areas were similarly constituted as regards the proportions of
their sex and age group components, their crude death rates (deaths
per 1,000 population) could be accepted as valid comparative measures
of the mortalities experienced by the populations. In practice, however,
populations are not thus similarly constituted, and the Registrar-General
has accordingly calculated a factor (called the Area Comparability Factor)
for each district. This is, in effect, an adjustment of the age and sex
composition of the district to that of England and Wales as a whole, so that
all may be compared on the same basis. To obtain the adjusted death rate,