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28
PART 1
VITAL STATISTICS
Population
The civilian population at the middle of the year was estimated
by the Registrar-General to be 302,258.
Movement of Population
The work of the Department continued to be made more complex
by the continual movement into and out of the Borough of children
under five years of age. The records show that during 1972
nearly 2,400 children arrived in Wandsworth and about 2,800
moved out. There was a marked reduction in the number who
moved without leaving any apparent trace - 1,591 compared with
1,908 for the previous year; of these, 475 were finally traced by
means of persistent inquiries. The number of internal movements
increased from 2,752 in 1971 to 3,188 in 1972.
Statistics — Assignment of births and deaths
From 1972, the Registrar General has introduced a change in
the rules governing the assignment of births and deaths to local
authority areas for statistical purposes. Hitherto, where the
mother's or deceased person's usual residence is stated as an
address outside England and Wales, the birth or death has been
assigned to the local government area of occurrence. From 1972
onwards, any such cases are dealt with as outward transfers
from the area of occurrence, but are not assigned to any other
area. This means that live birth, stillbirth and death figures for
local authority areas now exclude persons who are not normally
resident in England and Wales. The effect so far as Wandsworth
is concerned is likely to be negligible.
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 1972 the factor for births is 0.90 and for deaths
0.87.