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It will be noted that the rates for ages 15-25 show increase in the post-war
years; and, on comparing the figures for 1900-02 with those for 1911-13, it will be
seen that, although there is no increase among males at these ages, the decline is
relatively much lower than at all other ages, while among females an increase occurred.
The changes, therefore, have not been initiated by the war, which nevertheless may
have had some share in causing the relatively greater change in the mortality among
young adults which occurred in the later intercensal period.
The census shows that the London population of both sexes at ages
between 15 and 25 is greater than could be expected from the births in London.
In 1911 the female population aged 15-20 exceeded that aged 10-15 by 9,422,
and again those aged 20-25 exceeded those aged 15-20 by 25,437. The
increase is not due to any increase in the birth-rate of the London population
about 20 years earlier, but is due (apart from possible misstatement of age at
the census) to the attraction to London of young adult women. Both misstatement
of age, if any, and the movement of population would disturb the mortality
rates calculated upon the census figures. The movement of population at these
ages is the result of the attraction which London offers to young adults of both
sexes, but particularly to females in domestic service, and to the movement
out of London of young adults on marriage or in the earlier years of married
life. The London Life Table for 1901-1911 published in the Report of the Medical
Officer for 1912 enables an approximate estimate to be made of the number of females
who would have been enumerated in 1911 if there had been no intercensal movement,
and the result is to show that the number enumerated of age 20-25 in 1911, namely
237,825, was over 30,000 more than could have survived from the 1901 population
aged 10-15; and it is concluded that about 65,000 females had moved into London
and 35,000 out of London at these ages during the intercensal period to account
for the difference between the actual and estimated female population. The corresponding
approximate figures for males are inward movement 20,000; outward.
30,000. These movements of the population of young adults naturally affect the
mortality rates, and especially those relating to such a disease as phthisis, where
the advice has always been in favour of a life in the country or abroad. So much
uncertainty does in fact attach to the calculated London phthisis mortality among
young adults that it cannot be definitely concluded from the rates of recent years
that the mortality among young adults has in fact increased, especially in view of
the general decline at other ages not correspondingly disturbed by migration.
In last year's Annual Report (vol. III., p. 7) the influence of movement of
(population (internal migration, i.e., migration within this country, and external
migration, i.e., migration between this country and foreign lands) upon phthisis
death rates was considered. The decline in the phthisis death-rate, extending over
half a century up to about the period 1912-14 ; its rise during the war years;
10161 B 2
Movement of
population in
relation to
phthisis
death-rate.