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13
suicides that they tend to be commoner in these social classes.
Just over one-third of the population in Hampstead were classified
in the 1951 census as being in the social classes 1 and 2,
and from a study of the occupations of the 89 suicides shown in
the Table, about the same proportion are in social classes 1
and 2. Thus it is reasonable to say that a part of the excess
suicides in Hampstead is associated with the social class distribution
of the population.
The Registrar General in the Report already quoted
points out that some of the towns with an excessive suicide rate
also have a high proportion of elderly retired people. Table 2
and Figure 1 show that in Hampstead in the case of males the
highest rates are indeed amongst the men over JO with the exception
of the very high rates of men aged 55 - 59, but such excess
in the elder women is not a feature of the Hampstead figures.
It therefore seems unlikely that the excess of old people (11.9
per cent. of the population of Hampstead are over 65 as compared
with 11.1 per cent. for the County of London) could have played
any significant part in the excess of suicides.