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8
The part which the 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.
MORTALITY.
General Mortality.—There were 500 deaths of residents registered
in the Borough, and 147 of residents who died in Public Institutions
outside of the Borough, making a total of 647 deaths. Of these deaths
328 were of females and 319 were of males.
The recorded general death-rate is therefore 12.3, which was also the
rate 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
be justly 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.
There is, therefore, calculated by the Registrar-General from the
Government Census returns, a corrective factor for each district in the
County of London, according to the sex and age distribution of the
population of that district: the multiplication of the recorded deathrate
of the district by this factor gives the death-rate which would
obtain in that district if the sex and age distribution of the population
of the district were in the same proportions as it is in the country as a
whole—thus eliminating the accidental differences due to sex and age
and affording a fair means of comparison, and a truer test of the
healthiness of the district. The death-rate so ascertained is known as
the corrected death-rate.