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10
Death-rates vary very much in different districts according to the
nature 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 containing a larger
proportion 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
death-rate 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.
The so-called "factor for correction" for the Borough of Stoke
Newington is 1.0438, and the death-rate corrected for age and sea
distribution is 11.0 x 1.0438 = 11.5 per 1,000 per annum.
In arriving at this corrected death-rate, the deaths of nonresidents,
who have died in Public Institutions within the Borough,
have, of course, been excluded.
The rate is the lowest recorded since the formation of the Borough.
The death-rate for the whole of London was 14.0.
The death-rate of London has shown a decline for the past 40
years, and an almost uninterrupted decline year by year for the past
10 years; while in the case of the Birth-rate the fall year by year has
been slight but uninterrupted for some 30 years. What this decline
in the Death-rate of the population of 4,795,757 persons implies, is
very forcibly expressed by Sir Shirley Murphy, the L.C.C. Medical
Officer of Health, in terms of "Life Capital." By this expression