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7
It has been found that in England and Wales both the stillbirths and
the infant deaths differ greatly according to social class, as can be
seen in the following table:—

When infant deaths are analysed it is found that the causes of
death do not always correspond in the same way to social class;
thus for the same year, injury at birth which was 2.6 in social class I,
was 2.9 in social class II and 2.7 in social class V, whereas premature
birth, which was 8.7 in social class I gradually increased to 16.4 in
social class V. For certain infections the difference was even more
remarkable; for example, for diarrhoea and enteritis the figure for
social class I was 1.1 and increased uniformly to 5.7 (more than 5 times
as much) for social class V, and that for bronchitis and pneumonia
increased from 1.8 in social class I to 13.2 (over 7 times as much) in
social class V. We are using the Registrar-General's social class
distinctions for certain statistics available to this department and an
indication of this will be found in tables 6 and 7 on p. 15. They will
be used in connection with various other deaths in future years.
Divisional statistics
It has been recommended from time to time that certain statistics
should be shown in fairly small areas, so that the various areas can be
compared. Wards are sometimes taken as the unit, but usually the
ward population is so small as to make statistics based on that population
highly variable and therefore of relatively little value. On the other
hand, dealing with a very large area as one unit does not give a sufficiently
accurate analysis of statistical causes and trends within that area. Such
an area is a borough like this with a population approaching a quarter of
a million. To counteract this, and in anticipation of the proposed new
electoral divisions, statistics wherever possible were from January 1,
1949 kept in parliamentary divisional areas, and it will be noticed on
looking through this report that many of the tables are thus divided.