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20
PART 1
VITAL STATISTICS
Population
The civilian population at the middle of the year was estimated
by the Registrar-General to be 317.410.
Movement of population
It is perhaps not generally realised how the work of the Health
Department is complicated by the high mobility of the population.
Records are kept of the movement of children under five years of
age and during 1970 over 2,600 moved into Wandsworth and nearly
3,300 moved out. Much work is involved when families move
away without leaving any information about their new addresses,
as each child's records are sent to the appropriate local authority
when its parents move. During the year 1,739 children were lost
sight of, 583 being subsequently traced by means of local inquiries
and telephone calls and letters to other authorities. In addition,
just on 3,000 children changed their addresses inside the Borough.
Every one of these moves calls for the transfer of records designed
to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child.
Area comparability factors
Each year, the Registrar-General provides area comparability
factors relating to births and deaths. These factors take into
account the extent to which the age and sex distribution of the
local population differs from that of England and Wales as a whole
and this enables valid comparisons to be made between the birth
and death rates in Wandsworth and those in other areas.
For the year 1970, the factor for births is 0.96 and for deaths
0.84.