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15
5. DEATHS.
(a) General.—There were 302 deaths registered in Barking in 1937. Of these 8
were deaths of non-residents. Barking residents to the number of 306 died
elsewhere during the year. Including the latter and excluding the deaths of
visitors, the net number of deaths was as follows:— Males. Females. Total.
324 276 600
The death rate for 1937 was 7.8 per 1,000, compared with 8.0 in 1936, 12.4
for England and Wales, 12.5 for the hundred and twenty-five County Boroughs and
Great Towns, including London, 11.9 for the one hundred and forty-eight Smaller
Towns, and 12.3 for London.
The above rate is commonly spoken of as "the crude death rate." It is of
little use for comparative purposes.
Some towns inevitably have a high percentage of elderly people, and here of
course the crude death rate is bound to be high, whilst in other towns there is a
gradual exodus of people as they get towards middle age, and this factor tends to
reduce the crude death rate.
The Registrar-General gives us a factor whereby we can correct the crude
death rate, and this corrected death rate for Barking is 9.75 per thousand population,
which represents what the death rate in Barking would be if we had a standard
population. This may be compared with the rate of 12.4 for England and Wales,
but it should not be compared with the uncorrected rates for any particular section
of the Country.
It is, of course, to be noted that the relatively small population of Barking
means that we are likely to have wider fluctuations in our death rate than in larger
areas, but it is a matter of satisfaction that the death rate in Barking has been
consistently low over a period of six years.