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It will be seen from the preceding table that during the year 1902, compared with the
decennium 1891-1900, there has been a saving of 9.363 lives, representing a gain to the community
of 385,756 years of life capital.
Comparison of "life expectation" in two selected London districts.
The foregoing tables relate to London as a whole, and on that account can be regarded
as exhibiting the facts for a collection of hypothetical units, each of which may be described as
an "average Londoner." In a vast community like that of London, comprising persons of every
social condition, the rates of mortality of the component parts of the population exhibit wide
variations. Some indication of the extent of these variations is afforded by the figures showing
the corrected death-rates for each of the metropolitan boroughs (see table on page 13), where it will
be seen, for instance, that the death-rate of Finsbury was 32 per cent. in excess of that of London,
while the death-rate of Hampstead was 33 per cent. below that of London.
Even wider divergencies from the average death-rate of the community are found when
smaller areas than metropolitan boroughs are selected; thus the death-rate in what is known as
the Boundary-street area, Bethnal-green, which was cleared by the Council under the Housing
of the Working Classes Act, was shown to be over 40 per 1,000, a figure considerably more than
twice the London death-rate for the corresponding period of time.
If the facts could be arithmetically stated it is probable that a close relation could be established
between these variations in rates of mortality and variations in the "social condition" of the
constituent parts of the community. Some indication of this is to be found in the figures published
in previous annual reports showing the relation existing between "overcrowding," and all
that this term connotes, and mortality. The amount of "overcrowding" in a community is probably
the best index of its "social condition"; in any case, it is the one which most readily lends
itself to arithmetical statement. The inability to secure adequate house-room is in most cases
associated with the inability to secure adequate food, clothing, and other necessaries.
In view of these facts, two of the metropolitan boroughs have been chosen for comparison
whose populations, broadly speaking, differ widely in respect of "social condition," viz., Hampstead
and Southwark, and short life tables have been constructed for each for the purpose of comparing
the expectation of life in the two communities.