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STATISTICS AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
Social conditions
The London Borough of Enfield covers an area of 20,061 acres and has an estimated population of
265,910 and a rateable value of £19,535,237. Development is well balanced with a wide variety of
environmental conditions, ranging from open country, through residential property of all kinds,
commercial premises and shopping centres, to industrial areas.
With a proposal to open to the public three hundred and thirty acres of park land at Trent Park in
March, 1973, the leisure time facilities in the borough will be further improved.
The provision of picnic areas, adequate car parking spaces, a three mile horse ride, and fishing which
will be allowed by permit from the two lakes in the grounds, will offer the town dweller every inducement
to forsake the urban environment for a day in rural surroundings. A public eighteen-hole golf
course under construction on land bordering Trent Park is due to open in October, 1973.
Picketts Lock Centre is the first major development of the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, due
to open in March, 1973. In addition to a nine-hole golf course there will be in the Centre considerable
provision for indoor recreational facilities which will include a bowling green, swimming pool and
floodlit pitch for football, hockey and tennis.
The transport network serving the borough includes an underground, three suburban and two main
railway lines and numerous bus routes. Two trunk roads cross the borough, one from east to west and
the other from north to south. One first-class road runs north to south and important metropolitan
roads run east to west.
The main public building is the Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, which contains the Mayor's Suite,
the Council Chamber, committee rooms and the department of the Town Clerk. The other departments
of the Council are housed separately in premises throughout the borough, but work is in
progress to extend the Civic Centre in Silver Street to accommodate the staffs of all the Council's
main departments.
Vital statistics
Births The total number of live births during the year was 3,559, giving a crude birth rate of 13.4 and a
standardised birth rate of 13.7 compared with the rate for England and Wales of 14.8.
Deaths The number of deaths during the year was 3,291 (1,623 males and 1,668 females) giving a crude death
rate of 12.4 and a standardised death rate of 11.5 (England and Wales 12.1).
The causes of death remain reasonably consistent with previous years, the most prevalent being cardiovascular
system, 1,711 deaths (52% of all deaths); malignant neoplasm, 705 deaths (21% of all deaths);
diseases of the respiratory system (excluding malignant neoplasm), 476 deaths (14% of all deaths).
Of the 1,711 cardio-vascular causes 908 were due to ischaemic heart disease, 406 to cerebro-vascular
disease, 57 to hypertensive disease, 27 to chronic rheumatic heart disease, 123 to other forms of heart
disease and 191 to other diseases of the circulatory system.
Of the 705 malignant neoplasm causes of death, 203 (of which 166 were male) involved the lungs and
bronchus, 92 the intestine, 69 the stomach and 80 the breast. Of the diseases of the respiratory
system, bronchitis and emphysema accounted for 156 deaths, pneumonia 269 deaths and tuberculosis
four deaths.
There were no deaths during the year from diphtheria, whooping cough, poliomyelitis or measles.
Forty-seven per cent of all deaths, (559 males and 1,002 females) were of persons aged 75 years or
more; thirty-two per cent (352 males and 698 females), were of persons aged 80 years or more. Ten
males and 46 females were aged 95 years or more, including five females aged 100 years, four aged
101 years and one aged 102 years.
Deaths of infants During the year there were 54 deaths of infants under the age of one year, of which 42 were under
the age of four weeks and 34 under the age of one week. The infant mortality rate for the borough was
15 compared with 17 for England and Wales.
Most of the deaths of infants under four weeks were due to congenital anomalies, birth injury and
difficult birth. Of the twelve deaths of infants between the ages of four weeks and one year, five were
due to respiratory diseases, and three to congenital anomalies.
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