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ANNUAL REPORT
For 1 8 6 7.
TO THE VESTRY OF ST. MARY, ISLINGTON.
Gentlemen,
There can be no question that the year which we have last passed through
has been a comparatively healthy one. So small a number of deaths has not been
registered here since the year 1862. Omitting the deaths of persons from other
districts taking place in hospitals, and also those occurring in the Clerkenwell Infant
Poor House and West London Union Poor House, as not fairly to be counted amongst
our own, the registered mortality of Islington for the fifty-two weeks ending
December 28th, was 3760 deaths.
In 1866 it was 4172 deaths.
1865 „ 3813 „
1864 „ 3843 „
1863 „ 3854 „
1862 „ 3010 „
And yet our population may be regarded (if the rate of increase is the same as it
was in the decenniad 1851-61) as augmented each year by an addition of a number of
persons equal to five per cent. of the population of the previous year. But while we
exclude from our calculation the deaths of strangers to our population occurring here,
we ought to include a fair share of those occurring in the metropolitan hospitals, &c.
The number of such deaths which I calculate we may take credit for (and this, I
believe, is an extreme number) is 249. Adding these we arrive at a corrected
mortality of 4009. I estimate our population, in the middle of 1867, at 200,541
persons; and hence our death-rate for the year may be regarded as 199 9 per 10,000
living. In 1866 it was 231.6, in 1865 it was 221.8, in 1864 it was 224, in 1863 it was
227, and in 1862 it was 200 in 10,100 living, nearly the same death-rate then as in
1867. In London generally last year the death-rate was 229.8, a lower rate than had
prevailed during the five previous years. Still, it is to be observed, Islington
maintains its position of comparative healthiness, notwithstanding that the density
of its population has increased. The maintenance of its relative position is, with an
increasing population, a result not to be overlooked.