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5
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Borough of Hornsey.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the
health of the Borough for the year 1931.
The vital and mortal statistics are satisfactory, in that there
was no special epidemic or cause of disease or death during the
year under review. Health statistics require to be carefully
interpreted with a knowledge of changes taking place in the population
over fairly long periods of years. For example, it is of
little interest to know that the death-rate in Hornsey was 11.2
per thousand of its population in the year 1931. It is of great
interest to know that Hornsey's death-rate has risen steadily
from about 8 per thousand at the beginning of this century to
about 12 per thousand average in the last five years, while during
the same period the death-rate per thousand of the population
of England and Wales has fallen from about 18 to about 12.
This falling death-rate is constantly quoted by authority as an
index of the improved sanitation and health of the country
generally, and the question may well be asked—Is the rising
death-rate in Hornsey a sign of deterioration in municipal
hygiene and public health ? The answer to this question is in
the negative. The relatively low birth-rate and infant-mortality
rate in the Borough for many years, together with immigration
of retired people into the area, has resulted in a gradual increase
in the proportion of older persons in the population. It is the
increasing number of deaths in persons of advanced years that
tends to raise the general death-rate. Last year, of the total
1,058 deaths, 574 (over 54 per cent.) were in persons of 65 years
or over.
The Census, 1931.
The Census of England and Wales, taken on April 26th, 1931,
revealed a population of 95,524 in Hornsey—an increase of 9 per
cent, on the census population of 1921, which was only 3'6 per
cent. above the population of 1911. The Registrar-General in
his Preliminary Report on the Census draws special attention to