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VITAL STATISTICS
Population
the total home population of the County in the middle of 1954 according to the
Registrar-General was 3,322,000 compared with 3,343,000 in mid 1953—a decline of
21,000.
Corresponding estimates for metropolitan boroughs are shown in Table 3 on page 219
and the rates given in this annual report are calculated on these figures.
Table 1 (page 217) shows the age distribution of the population, as estimated by the
Registrar-General, at the middle of each year since 1936 and at the middle of the census
years 1921 and 1931 and the mid-census year 1926.
The net fall in the population from the middle of 1953 to the middle of 1954 is made
up of losses in the 0-4, 15-24 and 25-44 age groups offset partially by gains in the
5-14, 45-64 and 65+ groups. The numbers in the 0-14 age group as a whole have
remained relatively stable and the fall in the 0-4 group and the corresponding rise in
the 5-14 one are in part a reflection of the higher birth-rate in 1948 and 1949. It is
doubtful whether the loss of the younger children is wholly attributable to changes in
the birth-rate and, looked at in conjunction with the large decline in the population
aged 15-44, it would seem that the newly-established families are still leaving the county
for new and expanded towns and the like; the balance of the increase in the 5-14 age
group is only explainable in terms of a lesser inward movement of old established
families.
The increased proportion of the aged and the higher average age of the population
are continuations of long existing trends.
Fertility
The total births allocated to London for 1954 were :
Live 50,630
Still 1,025
Total 51,655
The live birth-rate in 1954 was 15.2 per 1,000 total population as compared with
15.3 in 1953. (The figure actually published for 1953 was 15.2 but it has since been
adjusted in the light of a later allocation of births from the Registrar-General.) The
number of live births registered as occurring in London was 58,442, an excess of
some 7,800 over those attributable to mothers residing within the County. The
corresponding excess in 1953 of registered births over those allocated was 7,500. The
birth-rate in London tends to follow the same trend as for the country as a whole—
indeed, since 1947 the rates have been practically identical. The two rates are not however
strictly comparable because the proportion of women of child-bearing age in the
population is greater in London than in England and Wales. If the London rate is
multiplied by the areal/comparability factor (0.87) it becomes 13.3 and hence lower
than that for England and Wales. This lower adjusted birth-rate is not however surprising
when it is considered that although there are proportionately more potential mothers
in London, proportionately fewer of them are married—60.5 per cent. as opposed to
64.0 per cent. in England and Wales, according to the 1951 census.
Live births
The course of the birth-rate over the last 21 years is shown in the diagram (page 8)
from which it will be seen that whilst it now seems to have stabilised a little below the
average for the period, it is well in excess of the pre-war and early war years. The actual
numbers and rates are given, together with those for still-births, in Table 2 (page 218).
For the years 1940 to 1949, the rates will not agree with those published by the RegistrarGeneral
because his are based on the civil population whereas those quoted are based
on an estimated total population—the justification for this divergence was given in
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