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The only change in the order of magnitude compared with 1953 is that pneumonia
and bronchitis, in which there was a considerable fall, has gone from third to fourth
position, below vascular lesions which has maintained the same rate. The diagram on
page 12 shows the relative movements of the first four causes, and of tuberculosis,
since 1934.
While the rates given above present a true order of importance as regards the population
at large, they do not give an adequate picture of their effect on the working
population as so many of them are diseases which affect mainly the aged. The table
below shows the loss of years of 'working life' (taken as ages 15-64) lost per 10,000
total population for certain diseases worked out by the method shown in Appendix C
of the Registrar-General's return for the quarter ended 30th June, 1954. It will be seen
that, as might be expected, the greatest loss of working life is caused by diseases of early
infancy, followed by cancer, diseases of the heart, violent causes and pneumonia and
bronchitis.
Cause of death Years of working life lost per 10,000 population
Male Female Total
Diseases of early infancy 162 99 261
Cancer 135 99 234
Diseases of the heart 101 45 146
Pneumonia, bronchitis 69 36 105
Violent causes 88 34 122
Digestive diseases 35 17 52
Vascular lesions of the central nervous
system 26 22 48
Tuberculosis (pulmonary) 19 16 35
Nephritis 11 10 21
Other circulatory diseases 12 7 19
Hyperplasia of prostate 1 — 1
All other causes 89 66 155
All causes 748 451 1,199
Bronchitis
and
Pneumonia
The death-rate for the bronchitis and pneumonia group was 1.14 in 1954 compared
with 1.71 in 1953. The course of the two components has varied—bronchitis has shown
a generally downward trend after its spurious increase in 1940 whereas pneumonia has,
since 1946, shown biennial rises and falls. In the year under review both have fallen
sharply. Figures for the component diseases are shown in Table 4 (page 220).
Cancer
The cancer death-rate for all ages in 1954 was 2.31 per 1,000, slightly lower than in
1953. The death-rate from cancer, which is largely a disease of the latter half of life,
can be substantially changed by variations in the age constitution of the population.
Some form of standardisation of the crude rate is, therefore, essential for true comparative
purposes.
Rates for specified ages since 1948 are shown on the next page :
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