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There was a striking decline in mortality up to middle age between 1931 and 1951; in the
past ten years there has been a further but much smaller decline, more pronounced in
females than in males (at ages 15-24 years the male death rate in 1961 slightly exceeded
that for 1951). At older ages, though there has been a decline over the 30 years, the difference
between males and females is even more evident than at younger ages; the male rates in
1951 at ages 65+ years showed hardly any change on 1931, whereas the corresponding
female rates showed a substantial fall and the differences between 1961 and 1951 are
proportionately greater for females than for males.
Infant mortality is mentioned separately below. In children (1-4 and 5-14 years) the big
reduction in mortality has been due to the fall in deaths from infectious diseases, particularly
diphtheria, respiratory diseases and tuberculosis. With young adults (15-24 years)
the fall in mortality has largely been accounted for by far fewer deaths from tuberculosis
and the respiratory diseases; the increase between 1951 and 1961 in males of these ages,
though slight, is accounted for by increased deaths due to violence, mainly deaths from
motor vehicle accidents. At ages 25-44 years there has been a reduction in mortality from
tuberculosis, the respiratory diseases and in females, between 1931 and 1951, far fewer
deaths in childbirth. Beyond age 44 years the fall in mortality, which is proportionately
much smaller than at earlier ages, has been largely due to fewer deaths from tuberculosis
and respiratory causes and at extreme old age to increased longevity, particularly with
females.
Particular aspects of the changes in mortality have been given in previous annual reports.
Appendix A in 1955 gave a review of mortality in this century; appendix A in 1954 gave a
review of lung cancer and since 1958 a table dealing with this has been given annually in
this series of reports; special reference in the section on mortality was made to heart
disease in 1956, to cancer in 1958, and to bronchitis and pneumonia in 1960.
Figure 3 on page 126 dealing with infant mortality shows, for the same three periods as
in figure 2, the striking change that has taken place in this field in the space of thirty years,
especially in the first twenty of them. (From a figure of 64 infant deaths per 1,000 live births
centred on 1931 to 25 in 1951 and to a rate of 21 currently.) The main causes for this improvement
were dramatic falls in mortality from the infectious diseases, respiratory
diseases, gastro-enteritis and immaturity.
Housing
Housing and health go hand-in-hand; the association of poor housing and poor health
is well recognised. The census provides a stock-taking of the housing available and the uses
to which it is put and, whilst figures may not have any qualitative expression, judicious use
of suitable housing indices in juxtaposition provides measures from which can be gauged
the adequacy or otherwise of the way in which the population is housed.
The housing data is not seriously affected by the de facto aspect of the census, except that
when related to households information is restricted to households present on census
night. An explanation of the terms used in the census and in the discussion that follows is
given in the footnote.
Housing definitions. A dwelling means a building or part of a building which provides separate living quarters.
Normally this is a private dwelling-house or flat with a front door of its own. The instructions to the census
enumerators were that accommodation should only be counted as a dwelling if access to the main door was by
means of an admission staircase or landing; if it could only be reached through the quarters occupied by another
household, including a hall, it was not to be counted as a separate dwelling. A room was defined as any covered
space surrounded by walls, doors or windows which was used for living, eating or sleeping and included rooms
available for these purposes but not actually in use; the instructions to the enumerators were that landings,
lobbies, recesses, closets and bathrooms, store rooms, shops, offices and warehouses should not be included in
the number of rooms and that kitchens, kitchenettes or sculleries should only be counted as rooms if meals
were regularly eaten there. (There was a slight difference between 1931 and 1951 in this last respect; in 1931
all kitchens so described were counted in the number of rooms but its practical effect is not thought to be
sufficiently material to impair intercensal comparison.) A household was defined as ' A household comprises
one person living alone or a group of persons living together, partaking of meals prepared together and
benefiting from a common housekeeping."
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