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factor for the London death rate (which allows for the differing sex and age structure
in the local population to enable comparison to be made with the national rate) was
0.99 for 1955 and has never been far from unity ever since its introduction in 1934.
The two rates therefore, unlike the birth rates, are reasonably comparable without
further adjustment.
The death-rate from all causes, which, with the increasing age of the population,
had been slowly rising before the war, rose sharply in 1940. This increase was partly
due to the exclusion of the young and healthy section of the population from the
statistics but the heavy toll of air raids was also a contributory factor. Between 1944
and 1950 there was generally a decline followed by a rise in 1951 attributable largely
to an increase in respiratory and heart disease; since that year and until 1954, there was
a steady decline to the lowest figure ever recorded, but in 1955 the rate has risen again
to 11.5 per 1,000 population. The winter rise in mortality continued longer than is usual
in the first three months of 1955; the temperature was consistently low in these months.
The increase in mortality over 1954 was mainly among the aged and in the diseases
affecting old age—pneumonia, bronchitis and diseases of the heart: the increase in the
deaths of infants (110 over 1954) has only a slight effect on the general death rate but
its effect is more pronounced in the infant mortality rate (discussed later).
Leading
causes of
death

* Excluding pneumonia of the new bom (under 4 weeks) which is included in * Diseases of early infancy
The only change in the order of magnitude compared with 1954 is that pneumonia
and bronchitis, in which there was a considerable rise, has resumed third place in the
order of ranking.
Heart disease
Heart disease, with a death-rate of 3.37 was still by far the major causc of death and
accounted for nearly one-third of mortality. There was a rise from the figure of 3.22
in 1954, but this is a reflection of the overall increase in the death rate of which heart
disease is the most important component: this component has remained consistently
around 30 per cent, of total mortality for the past ten years.
• Cancer
The cancer death-rate for all ages in 1955 was 2.39 per 1,000, the highest ever
recorded in peace time, see Table 4. 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.
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