View report page

Crayford Urban District Council
To the Chairman and Members of the Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report for
the year 1952.
The vital statistics of the Urban District were satisfactory
but it should be remembered that they do not tell the full
story in regard to the health of the area. To complete the
picture we should, also, require morbidity statistics relating
to the number of residents who, during the year, attended
hospital, or their private doctors, who resorted to self medication
or even failed to achieve that general level of wellbeing
which is consistent with health. Such information is
not available, but it is clear from indirect sources of information
that the number of such persons was considerable.
Nevertheless, the vital statistics as presented, in that they are
capable of comparison with other districts and with events
in previous years, may be accepted with guarded optimism.
The birth rate during 1952 was 14.4 per 1,000 of the
home population compared with 13.9 in 1951, and with a
rate for England and Wales for 1952 of 15.3 per 1,000. The
birth rate for the District corrected by the use of the Registrar
General's comparability factor (0.93) which allows for comparisons
with other areas, was 13.4.
The death rate for the district, during 1952, was 9.11
per 1,000 of the home population compared with 9.56 per
1,000 in 1951, and with a 1952 rate for England and Wales
of 11.3. The Crayford death rate for 1952 corrected by the
comparability factor (1.21) for deaths was 11.2 per 1,000.
The infant mortality rate for 1952 was 25 per 1,000 live
births compared with 20.7 in 1951. The general death rate
of infants under 1 year of age for England and Wales for
1952 was 27.6. Of the 10 infantile deaths occurring during
1952 in the Urban District, nine occurred in the neonatal
period (within one month of birth) and were due to causes
[ 3 ]