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Annual Report on the Health and Sanitary
Condition of the City of Westminster,
1909 .
To the
Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors
of the City of Westminster.
My Lords and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit to you my Annual .Report for the
year 1909.
Returns required by the Local Government Board, and particulars
relating to Factories and Workshops required by the Home
Office, are incorporated therein.
I have again to point out that it is somewhat difficult as the years
get further away from the last census period to estimate the correct
population of Westminster thereon, or make the usual calculations.
Under such circumstances birth and death rates cannot be regarded
as reliable, and any conclusions drawn from a consideration of them
must be guarded.
Apparently the year as a whole has been a healthy one—in the
early months influenza was prevalent, and the number of deaths
recorded was up to the average, but in the remaining quarters the
death rates were below the average.
For the whole year the death rate of London is estimated at
14 per thousand persons living, as compared with 16.3 the average of
the previous ten years, and 14.9 the average rate, 1904-8. For Westminster
the rate was 12.7 per thousand, the average being 14.4 for the
ten years, 12.9 for the last five years.
Deaths from the principal infectious diseases were equal to a rate
of 1.31 per 1,000 for London, which is lower than preceding years,
chiefly from the decline in deaths from Epidemic Diarrhoea, and notwith-