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DEATHS.
The number of Deaths registered during the year as belonging to
this District was 458 (223 males and 235 females), as compared with
439 in 1936.
This number excludes deaths which, although occurring within
the District, belonged to other districts, but includes deaths of residents
who died outside the District, and also non-residents dying in the District
who have previously had no permanent place of abode.
The Death Rate for the year was equal to 8.5 per thousand of
population, as compared with 8.5, 7.9, 7.6, 7.1 and 8.5 in the preceding
five years. A slight modification, however, is necessary if the number
is to be compared with that of England and Wales, the age and sex
distribution not being quite typical of the Country as a whole. The
corrected crude Death Rate for 1937 thus becomes 8.3 per thousand
of population.
The Death Rates in England and Wales were 12.4 in 1937, 12.1 in
1936, 11.7 in 1935, and 11.8, 12.3 and 12.0 in the preceding three years.
During the first fifteen years of the existence of this Urban District
there was a tendency for the Death Rate to decline, as in the Country
as a whole, the average for the three quinquennial periods being 8.5,
7.4 and 7.0. During the five years 1929-1934, there was a slight rise
to an average of 7.4, followed in the next three years by a steady increase,
but this year the rate is the same as in 1936. In part the most recent
increases are due to the number of persons dying in local Institutions
who had no permanent abode prior to their admission, their deaths
being registered as belonging to this District. In 1936 and 1937 there
were 21 and 17 such cases, whereas in 1935 there was only 1 similar case
and in 1934 only 6.
The increased number of deaths from Violence is also a contributory
factor this year.
Of the 458 deaths which occurred in Coulsdon and Purley in 1937,
54 percent. were over 65 years of age, which compares favourably with
the average of 53 percent. for the last four years, and 45 percent. for
the five years 1926-30.
The principal causes of death, together with the rates per cent,
of total deaths, are shown in the following Table.