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Children under 5 years.—The deaths of children under 5
years of age numbered 102, or 34 per cent. of the deaths at all
ages. Expressed in proportion to population living in the District
under 5 years, which is a much more reliable method, it is found
that the above number represents a death-rate of 32.6 per 1000
living at those ages. The corresponding death-rate in 1893 was
48.1, and the average annual rate in the three years 1891 to
1893, was 43.8 per 1000.
This death-rate, expressed as above, is believed to form a
more important sanitary test than the death-rate at any subsequent
group of ages, because very few indeed leave their homes
under 5 years ; consequently up to this period of life the population
of any particular place may be looked upon as practically
stationary, and therefore fully exposed to all the healthy and
unhealthy influences which may exist in it. It is satisfactory,
therefore, that the average annual rate for the last four years, is
considerably below the average annual rate for England and
Wales, which is 63.5 per 1000.
The deaths of persons between 5 and 15 years numbered 34,
or 11.4 per cent. of the total deaths. In this case also it is far
more reliable to state the deaths in proportion to the population
living at those ages, and, expressed in this way, they
represent a death-rate of 4.4 per 1,000, as compared with 33
per 1,000 in 1893, and an average annual rate for the three years
1891 to 1893 of 2 8. The corresponding average annual rate for
England and Wales was, for the same years, 3 8 per thousand,