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6
PREFACE.
The health of the Borough of Lambeth during the year 1934
has been generally satisfactory, as is indicated by the statistics
in the Report. The Registrar General's estimation of the population
shows a further reduction of 5,100 from that of 1933 to 283,900
due, no doubt, to the large clearance areas in the inner Wards,
which have been the subject of Orders made by the County Council
and confirmed by the Minister of Health after inquiry The
estimated population is now 12,247 less than at the census, 1931.
The birth rate, which has fallen year by year almost continuously
for the past ten years, shows a slight increase from 13.63 in 1933,
the lowest recorded, to 14.21, and the natural increase in the
population by births over deaths is 1,528, compared with 152 in
1933.
This year the Registrar General has calculated a comparability
factor for the Borough for the purpose of adjusting the local death
rate, which will enable the crude death rate to be compared with
the crude death rate of the country as a whole or with that of any
other local area whose crude death rate has been similarly modified.
The crude modified death rate for the Borough when adjusted
by the comparability factor is 12.65 per 1,000 population, which
is the lowest rate since 1926, when it was 12.4. The proportion of
deaths which occurred at the ages of 65 years and over is slightly
less than it was in 1933, but nevertheless, is 47.5 per cent.
The zymotic death rate is raised from 0.38 to 0.59, mainly by
reason of the biennial measles epidemic and to the increase in the
number of deaths from diphtheria.
Thanks are gratefully tendered to members of the Maternity and
Child Welfare and Public Health Committees for advice and
criticism, to the general practitioners and other medical men
working in the Borough, and principally to the staff of the Public
Health Department.
A.G.G.T.
July, 1935.