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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 1953.
The vital statistics of the Urban District indicate once
again that, according to this limited yardstick, the health of
the Urban District can be considered satisfactory. The
customary warning must however be given that these figures
should be accepted with guarded optimism as they give only
a part, albeit an important one, of the total health situation
of the population.
The birth rate for 1953 was 14.6 per 1,000 of the
population compared with 14.4 in 1952. It would be premature
to suppose that this slight increase can represent a
reversal of the downward trend which has been noticeable for
over 40 years and it is impossible to forecast what the future
rates may be. The birth rate for 1953, after correction by
the comparability factor supplied by the Registrar General
(.95) was 13.8. The uncorrected birth rate for England and
Wales was 15.5, so it will be seen that, once again, the birth
rate for the District was well below that of the Country as
a whole.
The death rate for 1953, at 9.8 per 1,000 of the whole
population was slightly lower than the rate for 1952 which
was 9.11 per 1,000. After correction by the comparability
factor for deaths (1.20) the rate was 11.7, and the uncorrected
death rate for England and Wales for 1953 was 11.4. Cancer
was again second, after diseases of the heart and blood
vessels, among the chief causes of death.
The infant mortality rate for 1953 at 24.5 per 1,000 live
births showed a slight decrease on 1952, namely 25.0 per
1,000 live births. The rate for the Country as a whole was
26.8 per 1,000 related births so that the relatively favourable
position of the Urban District in this respect will be appreciated.
Of the 10 infantile deaths in the District only one
was due to causes which are at present preventable, namely,
a death from gastroenteritis.
Infectious diseases when judged by the standards of 25
years ago, were very low. Measles headed the list with 174
cases; with whooping cough 41, and scarlet fever 36, the
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