Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
This page requires JavaScript
2
population.
a slight excess of males, the proportions being 100 : 99 on each occasion. The greatest inequalities
have been recorded in the Lancaster Gate Wards, where also the widest fluctuations at successive
enumerations have occurred. In Lancaster Gate, West, the ratios have been: 1901, 100: 197;
1911,100:194; and 1921, 100 : 209 ; and in Lancaster Gate, East : 1901,100 : 247; 1911,100 : 238;
and 1921, 100 : 200.
Prior to 1921 the employment of women as domestic servants was probably the dominant factor
in producing the sex.distribution inequality in the Borough, and was certainly true of the three
southern wards. In these days the force of such factor is considerably diminished, and it certainly
has had no part in producing the reversal of the proportion observed in Queen's Park Ward.
Age Distribution.—No data are at present available of the numbers enumerated at different
ages in the Wards. The following observations apply, therefore, to the Borough as a whole.
With a view to determining the changes in age.distribution, the proportions of those enumerated
in each of ten age.groups per 1,000 of each sex, at all ages, have been calculated from the data available
for each census since 1841, when the ages were first taken. Considerations of space prevent
the inclusion of the tables embodying the results of those calculations, but they show very clearly
the reductions which have taken place in the proportions of individuals enumerated at ages under 35
years, and the great increases in the proportions at ages over 45. At ages 0.5 years the proportion
of males has fallen 38 per cent., that of females, 42 per cent. For each age.group the fall is less up
to ages 25.35. At the higher ages the proportion increases rapidly to maxima for the group 75.85,
being 140 per cent. for males and 300 per cent. for females.
The inequalities in sex.distribution prevail in each of the ten age.groups. They are especially
noticeable in the age.groups 15.25 (100 : 157), 25.35 (100 : 156) and 85 and upwards (100 : 298). The
contrast between the proportions found in the age.groups 5.15 (100 : 103) and 15.25 (100 : 157) supports
the view as to the influence of the employment of female domestic servants in producing sex.
distribution inequality.
The changes in the age composition of the population referred to above have been further examined,
using the census data available for the Borough, viz., those for 1901, 1911 and 1921. For
this enquiry five age.groups have been used, viz., 0.5, 5.15, 15.25, 25.65 and 65 and upwards. From
the census data the age.sex composition of a (theoretical) constant population of 1,000 persons has
been calculated for each of the three census years.
The calculations show that the proportion of males at all ages in 1901 was 427 per 1,000 persons,
that for females 573, and that those proportions had become, in 1921, 420 and 580 respectively. The
proportion of males at ages 0.5 years, which was 44 in 1901, was 35 in 1921, a decrease of 21 per cent.
For females of the same ages the proportions are : 1901, 45 ; 1921. 34, a decrease of 25 per cent. At
ages 5.15 the proportions show (in 1921) decreases of 8 per cent. for males and 9 per cent. for females,
and at ages 15.25, of 22 . for males and 16per cent. for females. At ages 25.65 the proportions
for males and females show increases of 9 and 11 per cent. respectively, and in the last age.group (65
years and upwards) of 50 and 40.
The population of the Borough in 1921 was notably "older" than was that of the Old Parish
in 1841. From a very rough calculation it has been estimated that the mean age of the 1921 population
is some 12 to 15 years higher than that of the population in 1841. It would be reasonable, therefore,
to expect that the death.rate recorded in these days should be higher than it was at the middle of the
last century. The diminution in the proportion of children in the earliest years of life—a time when
the mortality is high—and the increase in the proportion of young adult women—among whom the
mortality is low—are factors which have been operative against an increase in the total death rate,
but when all allowances have been made for those and other similar natural factors favourable to a
lower mortality, the actual reduction in the death rate observed during the last half century must
be regarded as an achievement of no small notability.
Size of Family.—From 1801.31 the Census Reports gave the numbers of families, but from 1841.
91 that information was not taken out. In 1891 and 1901 the "Numbers of Families or Separate
Occupiers "were recorded and in 1911 the number of "Families" and of "Private Families." At
the last census only the number of "Private Families "has been reported, such families comprising
131,351 individuals out of the total for the Borough amounting to 144,261 persons. The only comparison
which can be safely made is that between the average family during the years 1801.31—which
varied from 4.1 to 4.5 persons—and the averages for "private" families in 1911 and 1921—which
were 3.9 and 3.4 respectively.
Occupations.—Owing to the changes introduced in the Report of the last Census, both as to the
grouping of occupations and as to the age.distributions under 25 years, comparison with the earlier records
is very difficult, in the absence of any explanatory tabulations. Moreover, the lowest age in
the tables for 1921 is 12 years instead of 10, as in the earlier Reports. It is only by assuming that
no children under the age of 12 years were "gainfully employed" at the time of the last census that
the following comparisons are possible. Attempts to trace out the changes in the actual occupations
followed by residents of the Borough have had to be abandoned pending the issue of some explanation
of the changes which have been made.