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Borough, Urban District and Rural District in the country. The
adjusting factor now supplied in respect of a given area represents
the ratio of the resulting death rate for the national 1931 census
population to the similarly obtained hypothetical death-rate for
the said area. The factor may be said to represent the population
handicap to be applied to the area and, when multiplied by the crude
death-rate experienced in the area, modifies the latter so as to make
it comparable with the crude death-rate for the country as a whole
or with the similarly adjusted death-rate for any other area.
Two extreme examples are taken to illustrate the working
of the comparability factor—Bournemouth and Dagenham.
Bournemouth's crude death-rate for 1933 was 14% above the
national average, but by the adjusted comparison it is seen to
be 15% below ; the apparent excess in the first comparison being
nothing more than a reflection of the elderly nature of the Bournemouth
population
The abnormal distribution of the population accounts for the
remarkably low crude death-rates in some of the rapidly growing
districts. Apart from the abnormal age distribution of the population,
the death-rates in some districts would require all persons
who died in those districts to be centenarians, and only the method
of comparison is by the use of the comparability factor.
As the population becomes stabilised, the death-rate must
rise. Even at the present time, the death-rate tends to increase,
but it may be asserted with confidence that never has the population
as a whole been so healthy.
The death-rate has declined irregularly since 1880, but it
was not until 1900 that the drop became marked. Throughout
the Kingdom the rate since 1920 has been fluctuating with a slight
tendency to increase.
In Acton the death-rate has not yet actually shown an increase.
Were it not that the death-rates at all ages below 80 have
been reduced, the death-rate would have started to rise steadily
about 1910, but actually it fell during the period 1920-1930 and
has not yet started to rise steadily, but inevitably it must do so before
many years have passed in spite of a healthier population.
Analysed for age periods, we find that in infancy the drop
is great, but it is less and less for each successive age-period. For
persons over 80, the death-rate is much the same and probably will
continue to be so.
In 1900 the average age at death was 34 years, and in 1933
it was 64.