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16
DEATHS
The net number of deaths registered during 1952 was 958, of
which 534 were males and 424 females, compared with last year's
total of 1,002 comprising 520 males and 482 females.
This gives a crude Death Rate for the Borough of 10.57 per
thousand of the population, a decrease of 0.67 as compared with
that of the previous year and a rate which is still 1.64 less than the
average for the last ten years, viz., 12.21. The crude Death Rate
figure is slightly increased to 11.10 when the comparability figure
furnished by the Registrar General for adjusting Local Deaths, is
taken into account.
The adjusted Death Rate is in effect a 'corrected' Death Rate.
The Registrar-General has pointed out that if the population of
all areas were similarly constituted as regards the proportion of their
sex and age group components, their crude death rates (deaths
per 1,000 population) could be accepted as valid comparative
measures of the mortalities experienced by the several populations.
Populations, however, are not similarly constituted and their
crude Death Rates therefore fail as true comparative mortality
indexes in that their variations are not due to mortality alone, but
arise also from differences in their population constitution. For
instance a town with a population consisting of aged persons would
register more deaths than one composed entirely of young and
vigorous adults. Again a town containing a larger number of males
than females records more deaths with a consequent higher Death
Rate than one in which females preponderate.
To overcome this difficulty the Registrar-General has worked
out for each area in the country an adjusting factor which is termed
the 'Comparability Factor' and is based on the last census population
figure.
The Comparability Factor for Greenwich is 1.05 and may be
regarded as the population handicap to be applied which, when
multiplied by the crude Death Rate for the year, modifies the latter
so as to make it comparable with the country as a whole or with any
similarly adjusted area.
The Death Rates for the County of London and for England and
Wales are 12.6 and 11.3 respectively, indicating relative decreases of
0.5 and 1.2 compared with those of the previous year.
The inset table showing the causes of deaths at all ages has been
supplied by the Registrar-General and is included in accordance with
the Ministry of Health's request.