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people than we had twenty years ago, and it is significant that
during 1922 there were thirty more deaths attributed to old
age than in the previous year. The fact that we have so many
elderly people in the Borough is in itself a tribute to the essential
healthiness of Hornsey: if we had been in the past an
insanitary town these people would not have lived to grow old.
But this larger proportion of older people, taken in conjunction
with the fact of a steadily-declining birth-rate over a period of
years, must necessarily mean that the average age of our population
is rising. A young population, with its normal low deathrate,
is no longer being recruited; and, on account of the decreasing
numbers of young people and the increasing numbers
of old people, we must expect to see a gradual increase in our
death-rate. Table N. clearly shows the influence of age on
the death-rates of Hornsey and of England and Wales in 1921.
The last census showed that there was a considerable excess
of females over males in the Borough of Hornsey. Altogether
there are 12,063 more women than men in the Borough. This
excess is chiefly due to the number of domestic servants. Up
to the age of fifteen years the numbers of boys and girls in the
town are practically equal—9,317 boys and 9,235 girls: in every
other age-group, however, the females are in excess. For
example, between the ages of 25 and 35 there are 5,794 males
and 8,830 females in Hornsey—fifty-two per cent, more women
than men of those ages.
The Birth-rate, that is to say, the number of births per
thousand persons in the Borough, was 15'5 during the past year.
This is a decrease over the rate of last year, and is far below
the birth-rates of fifteen or twenty years ago. One reason for
this decrease is to be found in the later age at which people
marry; and another, and probably more important cause, is the
voluntary limitation of families by those parents who do not
desire to have children.
The Death-rate of the Borough of Hornsey for the year under
review was only 1T2 per thousand population. This is a very
low rate, and attests to the absence of unusual causes of mortality.
Such a low rate would not be possible had the Borough