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Causes of and ages at Death.—General information with regard to the deaths
which occurred in the Borough during the year, mainly as to causes and the ages
at which death took place, is given in Table 12, on page 15.
This same table gives the number of deaths from various specified causes
which occurred in institutions, in hospitals, nursing homes, etc. In each of the
groups all deaths, whether of residents or non-residents, are included, which accounts
for the fact that the total comes up to 831.
Fuller information than is possible in the table is given in the following pages,
in which also the figures relating both to causes of death and the ages at which
these causes were operative are analysed.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The infantile mortality rate of any district is the number of deaths of infants
under one year of age per 1,000 of the births which occurred in the same year. The
number of babies under one year who died in St. Marylebone in 1939 was 49 and the
number of births allocated by the Registrar-General for the calculation of infantile
and maternal mortality rates in that year, 808. The infantile mortality rate is
therefore 60.64.
The Registrar-General's figure for legitimate births was 721 and the deaths
amongst legitimate infants numbered 35, giving a rate of 48.54. There were 87
illegitimate births and 14 deaths, the rate being 160.92.
In 1938 the death-rate for all infants per 1,000 five births was 60.
The means adopted in the Borough with a view to reducing this rate and
generally improving the life and health chances of infants and children are described
in a separate section of the report—Maternity and Child Welfare.
Table 7 shows, in addition to the causes of infantile mortality, the distribution
of the deaths according to age and locality.