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7
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Pancras Road, N.W. 1.
September, 1921.
To the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of St. Pancras.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you the Sixty-Fifth Annual Report on
the vital statistics and sanitary condition of the Sanitary District of St. Pancras,
including particulars of the year's work of the Public Health Department. It
is the eighth annual report which it has been my duty to submit.
The year 1920 was remarkable, both for the increase in the number of
births and for the decline in the various death-rates which are usually recorded
as an index of health conditions.
For many years there has been a gradual diminution in the birth-rate,
and this fall was accentuated during the period of mobilization for the war,
until during 1919 the rate had fallen to its lowest level. With demobilization
a remarkable recovery took place, beginning about the middle of 1919, and in
1920 the births occurred in St. Pancras at about double the rate prevailing in the
first six months of 1919. The birth-rate for 1920 (25.4 per 1,000 population)
was the highest recorded for the Borough since 1904.
In regard to deaths the record of 1919 was surpassed, the death-rate for
1920 (12.4 per 1,000 population), being 14 per cent, less than the average of
the five peace years preceding the war (1909-1913). The rate of infantile
mortality in St. Pancras was also much lower in 1920 than in any previous
year. There were 73 deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 birtbs.
This represents a reduction of 26 per cent. on the five war years (1914-1918),
and 28 per cent. on the five years preceding the war (1909-1913). A similar
reduction has taken place in the mortality from tuberculosis, there having been
in 1920, 31 per cent. less deaths than in the average of the five war years, and
23 per cent, less than in the average of the preceding five peace years. The
death statistics indicate that the health of the St. Pancras population was better
than in any former year. This is no doubt associated with the improvement in
the general social conditions, and it is to be feared that if a period of trade
depression and unemployment occurs it will have a bad effect on health, which
will be reflected in the death rates. It is most important that the Council's
efforts to improve the general health conditions of the Borough should not be
relaxed. So far as infantile mortality and deaths from tuberculosis are
concerned, there is no doubt that, although the death-rates have fallen to an
unprecedented degree, there is still room for great improvement.