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METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF CHELSEA.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
TELEPHONE : King' s Road,
FLAxman 8101 CHELSEA, S.W.3.
June, 1959.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have much pleasure in submitting my annual report on the
health of the Borough of the year 1958.
The mid-year population of Chelsea was estimated by the
Registrar General to be 50,190, an aggregate which showed a
decline of 410 as compared with 1957 when the figures were 50,600.
Since 1950 the population has, generally speaking, decreased, and
is now 2,300 below the estimated numbers for that particular year.
The total number of live births registered was 742, and is
a little in excess of the return for 1957 (738). The birth
rate was 14.8 per 1,000 of the estimated population, which after
the application of the "area comparability figure" gave a rate of
11.2. The number of deaths recorded in the year totalled 730, and
is twenty below the figures for 1957 (750). The current death rate
is 14.5 per 1,000 of the population, or when the "area comparability
factor" is employed - 10.4. The use of "Area Comparability Factors"
was adopted by the Registrar General because it is not possible for
the populations of all areas to be similarly constituted as regards
the proportions of their sex and age groups. Were this so, their
crude death rates, (i.e. deaths per 1,000 of population) would be
acceptable as valid comparative measures of the mortalities experienced
by their populations. Such differences are well illustrated by (a)
Chelsea with its large proportion of residents aged 65 years and over
(74 per cent. of all deaths in 1958 occurred in this particular group)
and (b) "new" towns which are mainly populated by persons of the lower
age groups. To obtain the adjusted rates so far as Chelsea is concerned
it is necessary to multiply the crude birth rate by 0.76 and crude death
rate by 0.72. It is pleasing to record that no deaths have been
recorded for four consecutive years as having been attributable to
accidents or diseases associated with pregnancy or childbirth. Infant
Mortality, however, showed an increase (24) as compared with 1957 (16).
Further details will be found on page 14.
Infectious Diseases notifications totalled 445, a fall of
two hundred and thirty-seven as against six hundred and eighty-two
received in 1957. This was mainly accounted for by the marked decrease
of Measles cases which were 53 per cent of the previous year's return.