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-9-
The death rate was 9.8 per 1,000 persons as compared with a
rate of 10.1 for 1953. Both births and deaths depend to some
extent on the proportions of young and old people and of males and
females in the area, and in order to make comparisons between one
area and another the Registrar General gives Area Comparability
Factors which take into account these variations in age and sex.
Using this factor the adjusted death rate for Bethnal Green would
be 10.4 as compared with 11.3 for England and Wales.
The birth rate also showed a favourable trend during 1954,
being 17.0 as compared with 15.9 during the previous year. The
adjusted rate however still remains below the national level at
14.8 as compared with 15.2 for England and Wales.
The infant mortality rate at 14.8 is only fractionally above
the rate for the previous year and compares very favourably with
the rate of 25.5 for England and Wales which is itself the lowest
rate ever recorded in this country. It is, in Bethnal Green
however, calculated on a very small number of infant deaths and is
consequently subject to large variations from year to year and as
an indication of child care the figure should bo used with some
caution.
The causes of death are shown in Table 1, which follows. There
was a general reduction in the number of deaths but there was no
significant change in the proportion of deaths attributable to any
particular cause.
Notification of Births
Arrangements continued in operation during the year whereby the
London County Council furnished to the Borough Council a weekly
return of births (including stillbirths) notified to them as the
Local Health Authority under the National Health Service Act, 1946.
During the year 942 live births (470 male and 472 female) were
notified and in addition there were 17 stillbirths (10 male and 7
female).
These figures represent corrected totals after the addition of
inward transfers and the deletion of outward transfers and the
difference between these figures and those set out previously is
due to the fact that births must be registered within 6 weeks and
it is not uncommon for a child to be born and notified in one
calendar year but not actually registered until the following year.