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24
VITAL STATISTICS.
This being a survey report, some special graphs
have been prepared showing the course of the Vital
Statistics of the Borough during the past 30 years.
Progress will be seen in every respect, even when
Bethnal Green, a poor and overcrowded industrial area,
is compared with the averages for London and England
and Wales.
The General Death Rate has fallen from 20.3 in
1901 to 18.0 in 1911, 12.9 in 1921, to 11.1 in 1930.
This saving of life or postponing of death, whichever
way one's philosophy disposes one to look at it, is
doubtlass due to a variety of causes, among which the
rising standard of life as well as the increased knowledge
and control over disease must be included as
very important. It must be remembered, however, that
progress is not automatic. It is a matter of continual
planning and striving and solving new problems.
Disease may be checked but if we allow the desire for
mechanical speed on the roads to kill and maim us or
our zest for an eventful life to fray our nerves we are
not much better off. "Health" as our wise counsellor
Sir George Newman points out "is won by a way of
life."
The Birth Rate, apart from a sudden jump in the
abnormal—one might almost say, morbid—circumstances
arising from the War, has steadily declined. From
35.5 in 1901, it fell to 31.4 in 1911, 25.4 in 1921 and
now in 1930 to 17.7. Having regard to the present
low state of employment, diminished wages and housing
congestion, there is every reason to welcome this reduction
in the number of children born. It is only to be
hoped that means will be found to promote birth control
in those families where it is specially desirable, where