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London County Council 1912

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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London County Council.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1912.
CHAPTER XXXII.
REPORT OF THE COUNTY MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH (Dr. W. H. IIAMER)
FOR THE YEAR 1912.
Part I.—General.
A—Vital Statistics.
The mean temperature of the air during 1912 was 0 9 degrees above the average of the preceding
65 years. The greatest excess over the monthly average occurred in December, March, February and
May, the temperature being below the average in August, September, October and, slightly so, in June.
The rainfall during the year was very slightly above the average, the excess being greatest in August
and the deficit greatest in April.
The total number of persons enumerated in London at the Census of 2nd April, 1911, was
4,521,685. This figure was remarkable, inasmuch as it denoted a decrease on the result of the enumeration
taken in 1901, amounting to 0.3 per cent, of the total population. During the hundred years from
1801 to 1901 there had been a continued growth in numbers from 959,310 to 4,536,267, though it is
necessary to mention that the rate of increase had Since 1881 declined from 17.4 per cent, to 7.3 per
cent. Attention has in previous years been drawn to the gradual decentralisation of the London
population, but whereas in 1901 only eight of the twenty-nine sanitary districts showed a loss on the
figures obtained at the previous census, in 1911 only nine boroughs, and those farthest removed from
the centre, showed a gain in numbers. Associated with the decline in London, it is to be observed
that the rate of increase in the population of the outer ring was as much as 33.5 per cent., and the rate
of increase in all the counties surrounding or adjacent to the metropolis was maintained or exceeded,
except in the case of those counties to the east, namely Essex and Kent, where there was a noteworthy
reduction in the rate of increase of 13.8 and 6.9 per cent, respectively. The rate of increase for the whole
of England and Wales was 10.9 per cent. Further notes on the statistics of population will be found on
page 2, but it may be here mentioned that the Registrar-General estimates the total number of persons
living in London at the middle of the year 1912 as 4,519,754.
As regards the density of population, London, covering an area of 74,816 acres, is pre-eminent
among administrative counties with 38,680 persons to the square mile. For the whole of England and
Wales the proportion is 618 persons to the square mile. In 1911, with 573,265 occupied houses,
London averaged 7.89 persons to each house, as against 7.93 persons in 1901. The number of uninhabited
dwellings was 33,006. The average number of persons to each family in all dwellings, was 4.37,
but taking into consideration ordinary dwelling houses only, it was 4.24.
The marriage-rate again showed an increase on the rate of the previous year, being 18.6 persons
married in every 1,000 persons living. The rate, which was as high as 20.6 per 1,000 in the decennium
1851-60, reached a minimum of 16.9 per 1,000 in 1908. Since 1909 there has been a slow but constant
increase, and in 1912 the rate was higher than in any year since 1899.
The birth-rate (24.5) was the lowest recorded in London since the institution of civil registration.
Since 1903 the decline has been continuous, the total diminution in rate amounting to 4.3 per 1,000
living. England and Wales in the same period shows a diminution in rate of 4.7 per 1,000 living. The
rate in the several London boroughs shows considerable variation, Finsbury, Shoreditch, Bethnal
Green, Stepney, Poplar and Bermondsey having the highest rates, ranging from 5.5 to 7.8 above the
mean London rate per 1,000 living. The question of the steady fall in the birth-rate in this and other
countries, the influence of migration and other causes, such as the incidence of mortality on special age
groups, is discussed on page 6.
In 1912 the death rate from all causes, 13.6 per 1,000 living, and the infant mortality rate, 91 per
1,000 births, were both the lowest yet recorded in this series of reports. The decrease in the all causes
death rate as compared with that obtaining in the decennium 1901—10 represents a saving to the community
of 10,065 lives, equivalent to 487,455 years of life capital. Concerning the principal epidemic
diseases, it is to be noted that the death rates from small-pox, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever,
diphtheria, and enteric fever were all below the annual average of the preceding 5 years, as was also
the death rate from phthisis; the notifiable infectious diseases, moreover, showed a diminished
prevalence. In the section of the report relating to enteric fever, reference is made to recent experience
in South-West Germany, and the deductions drawn therefrom are contrasted with the experience of
the disease in Belfast and London. (See pages 35-40).
Opportunity has been taken in the present report to include a new extended life table for London,
based on the mortality experience of the decennium 1901-10. This table shows the expectation of life
for each sex at each year of age. The first extended London life table was published as an appendix
to the report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1901. This life table was based on the
mortality experience of the decennium 1891-1900. The method adopted in the construction of the first
life table has been followed in the case of the present table, in order that the results obtained may be
strictly comparable. Compared with the earlier table, the present table shows that the expectation of
life at birth has increased in the case of males by 5.76 years, and in the case of females by 6.08 years, and
18820 a