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The death rate was 11.3 per 1,000 persons as compared with a
rate of 10,7 for 1956. 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 11.5 which is the
same as for England and Wales.
The birth rate during 1957 was 15.7 as compared with 17.3 during
the previous year. The adjusted rate for comparison with other
areas is 14.5 as compared with 16.1 for England and Wales.
The infant mortality rate was 12.5 as compared with the rate of
23.1 for England and Wales. 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 be used with some caution.
The causes of death are shown in Table 1, which follows.
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 825 live births (423 male and 402 female) were
notified and in addition there were 17 stillbirths (8 male and 9
female).
These figures represent corrected totals after the addition of
inward transfers and the deduction 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.