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11
The part which the rather low birth-rate plays in favouring the
low general death-rate of the Borough is duly accounted for in arriving
at the corrected death-rate.
In England and Wales the birth-rate has been lower and the deathrate
higher than any previously recorded. The persistency with which
the proportion of births continues to decrease year by year is a feature
which cannot be disregarded. Doubtless the fall in the birth-rate has
been accentuated in consequence of the large numbers of our manhood
who have been engaged in the present war, but this will not explain
the gradual drop which the rate has shown for a period of many years.
MORTALITY.
General Mortality.—There were 553 deaths registered of parishioners
who were resident in the Borough, and 120 parishioners who
died in Public Instutions without the Borough, making a total of 673
deaths of parishioners. Of these deaths 352 were of females and 321
were of males.
The recorded general death-rate is therefore 13.1, as against 13.7
in the preceding year. This ordinary death-rate, however, cannot be
taken as a true index of the healthiness of the Borough, nor can it bejustly
compared with the rates of other Sanitary areas, unless some
allowance is made for the relative proportions of males and females at
different ages in the districts compared.
Death-rates vary very much in different districts according to
the natures of the populations of these districts; for instance, in a
district containing a large number of very young or very old people,
the rate would be considerably higher than in a district consisting
almost entirely of people of middle age.