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The crude death rate for England and Wales was 10.8 in
1948, 11.7 in 1949, 11.6 in 1950, and 12.5 in 1951.

(A full list of the causes of the deaths and the ages at which
they occurred is given in Table IV. in the Appendix.)
HEART AND CIRCULATORY DISEASE.
The death rate from heart and other circulatory diseases,
5.81, was slightly higher than in 1950, but as this group is composed
chiefly of elderly people dying virtually of old age, this
increase is not regrettable.
As in the last two years, 81 per cent of deaths from heart
disease, etc. were over 65 years at the time of death, while no
less than 54 per cent were over 75 years of age. (Incidentally,
71 per cent of deaths from all causes were over 65 years, which
is 2 per cent more than last year and 10 per cent more than in
1949.)
CANCER.
The cancer death rate for the year 1950 was 1.91 compared
with 1.84 and 1.73 in the last two years and an average of 1.75
since the war.
This rate has tended to increase more or less steadily and is
now double what it was in 1920, partly owing to better notification,
but in part due to a true increase in some forms of the
disease.
The following table gives the age, sex and distribution of this
disease in the fatal cases which occurred in 1951. No marked
variation is observable compared with recent years. The number
of deaths from breast cancer in females was the same as in 1950,
but there was a further slight increase in the number of male
lung cases, more than compensated, however, by a decrease in this
form in females.
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