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24
DEATHS.
The number of deaths during the year belonging
to the Borough, was 1,207. This figure gives an annual
death rate of 11.8 per 1,000 population, which com
pares with 11.9 for the County of London and 11.8
for England and Wales as a whole.
Measles, Cancer and Gastric Ulcer all show
increases, but there is a decrease in the deaths from
Influenza, Pneumonia and other respiratory diseases,
and also from accidents.
Infantile mortality and the mortality from cancer,
street accidents and from tuberculosis and other
infectious diseases are subjects of comment in other
parts of this report.
As is well known, the death rate varies according
to age. A population which is composed largely of
old people will tend to have a higher death rate than
a district which is chiefly made up of younger people.
This age factor makes it difficult to compare the health
conditions of one district with another, as measured by
the ordinary death rate, unless allowance is made.
Sex also affects the death rate. The Registrar General
has accordingly calculated a factor (called the 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. Consequently when the
crude death rate (that is, the rate at which people die per
1,000 of the actual population of the district) is
multiplied by this Comparability Factor it has the effect
of making the corrected death rate comparable with the