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6
VITAL STATISTICS
Population
The total home population of the County in the middle of 1951, according to the
Registrar-General, was 3,358,000, compared with 3,389,620 in 1950. The provisional
census figure in April, 1951, was 3,348,336.
Corresponding estimates for metropolitan boroughs are shown in Table 2 on
page 141, and the rates given in this annual report are calculated upon these figures.
Table 1 shows the age distribution of the population at the middle of each year
from 1921, as estimated by the Registrar-General. Though exact figures have not
been available since the census of 1931, it is clear that the number of the aged in
the population of London is increasing substantially. According to age-group
estimates made by the Registrar-General in 1938, 8.5 per cent. of the population of
the County was then over the age of 65. Based on the 1951 Census (one per cent.)
figures, this percentage in mid 1951 was 11 .0.
Migration
Reference has been made in previous reports to the trend towards centrifugal
housing that has been in process for many years, and which continues. It has been
pointed out that such migration to dormitory areas outside the County might be
selective in so far as those leaving the central areas will tend to be younger and
healthier than average, this being a factor that would increase the ratio between
mortality in London and that in the outer ring. The heavy concentration of industry
and commerce in the central area continues, with the result that those moving to the
outer ring have to travel to London to work, and from the epidemiological standpoint
the resident London population is daily exposed to a correspondingly increased field
of contact.
Observations on a recent estimate (1949) of the day-time population of London
appear on page 132.
Fertility

The live birth-rate in 1951 was 15.6 per 1,000 total population, compared with
15.7 in 1950. Births allocated to London, i.e., those of mothers residing within the
county, are less than those actually registered as occurring in the county owing to the
fact that a number of mothers come to London to be confined in hospitals and nursing
homes. This excess of registered over allocated births now amounts to about 11
per cent., i.e., some 6,800 births in 1951. The corresponding figure in 1950 was
7,000.
The number of marriages registered in London in 1951 was 34,514, or 20.6
persons married per 1,000 of the total population, compared with 20.2 in 1950.
The birth-rate in London tends to follow the same trend as for the country as
a whole, but at a lower level. The diagram below shows the course of the two
rates since 1931. The actual rates for London are given in Table 5 (page 142).
Following the return of men from overseas and the establishment of more stable
conditions of family and economic life, the birth-rate in London, as elsewhere in the
country, reached a very high level in 1946 and 1947, greatly exceeding that of prewar,
but the history of the period following the 1914-18 war had shown that
substantial changes could occur in a comparatively short time, and it is not surprising
that a decline in the birth-rate has taken place. The chief point of interest now lies
in how far this decline will continue. The 1951 rate is still well above the pre-war
level, and the pace of the decline is much slower now than two years ago.