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METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF CHELSEA
TELEPHONE: Public Health Department,
FLAxman 8101 Town Hall,
King's Road,
CHELSEA, S.W.3.
June, 1963.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have much pleasure in presenting my Annual Report on the health
and environmental circumstances of the Borough for the year 1962.
The Registrar-General's estimate of the mid-year home population
of the Borough was 48,550, an increase of 60 on the previous year's estimate
of 48,490.
Live births numbered 625 (males 318: females 307), 38 fewer than in
1961 (663), which represents an annual rate of 12.9 Per 1,000 of the
estimated population. It is interesting to note that this is the lowest
number of Chelsea births registered since 1945 when the total was 557.
Illegitimate live births totalled 77 or 12.3 per cent of the total live
births registered, 16 less than in 1961 when 93 (14.06%) were recorded. Still
births numbered 11, remaining at the previous year's level, giving a rate
of 17.3 per 1,000 live and still births.
The number of deaths at all ages during the year was 708 (Males 319:
females 389), 17 less than the figure for the previous year (725), giving a
death rate of l4.6 per 1,000 of the estimated population. 76.27$%of the
deaths recorded related to persons aged 65 and over, and 15.68% concerned
persons in the 45 and under 65 age group. The principal causes of death
were heart disease 230; cancer (all forms) 129} pneumonia and bronchitis
113; and vascular lesions of the nervous system 85. Deaths attributed to
accidents and violence totalled 28. Heart disease and cancer continue to
cause the highest mortality rates and together (359 deaths) they account for
50.7% of the total number of deaths. if persons died from tuberculosis (2
respiratory and 2 non-respiratory), 6 fewer than in the previous year when
there were 10 deaths. Since the end of the war in 1945, there has been a
gradual downward trend in the mortality of this disease due to such causes as
the advent of new and effective drugs which also allow more extensive
surgery to be undertaken; the greater emphasis placed on finding the primary
source of infection and of all case contacts and the protection of the latter
with B.C.G. vaccination; and finally the big improvement in the general
health and social well-being of the nation as a whole.
Deaths from cancer of the lung rose from 27 in 1961 to 32 in 1962 (males
22: females 10) and it is of particular interest to note that whilst the
number of male deaths equalled the previous year's total (22), female deaths
doubled rising from 5 to 10, the highest yet recorded. It is perhaps too early
to say whether this is related to the known increase in smoking in women since
1940. During the past ten years the annual number of local residents dying