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Death Rates—Special Causes (per 1,000 population)
No. Rate
Heart Disease (all forms) 849 3.73
Ischaemic Heart Disease 666 2.93
Cerebrovascular Disease 258 1.13
Cancer (all forms incl. Leukaemia) 565 2.49
Lung, Bronchus 158 0.70
Breast 62 0.27
Uterus 10 0.04
Cervix 5 0.02
Leukaemia, Aleukaemia 12 0.05
Tuberculosis (all forms) 7 0.03
Pneumonia 224 0.98
Bronchitis and Emphysema 181 0.80
Congenital Anomalies 14 0.06
Accidents—Motor Vehicle 22 0.10
Home 14 0.06
Suicide 21 0.09
General
The term "statistics" covers all types of numerical descriptions
of social, economic and biological phenomena and, as a method of
comparing, differentiating and classifying material and data, brings
intelligent coherence to an otherwise incomprehensible mass of
minutiae.
It is conventional to consider vital statistics as the continuous
numerical recording, in a large number of lives, of marriages,
births, sickness and deaths as a means whereby the health and
growth of a community may be measured. Inevitably, of course,
this leads to the observation of other aspects of society which
influence life, its reproductivity and its vitality. This whole field is,
nowadays, referred to as the science of demography.
An essential preliminary to any statistical appraisal is the
"counting of heads" and this is achieved by the decennial Census.
However, it was not until 1801 that a national Census was initiated
and, with the exception of 1941, has been repeated every 10 years
since. At first, the Census merely covered the recording of sexes
with a rough classification of occupation. Not until the Census of