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3
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
Medical Officer of Health
FOR THE YEAR 1948.
August, 1949.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Borough of Hendon.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my eighteenth Annual Report
on the health of the Borough of Hendon for the year 1948.
GENERAL HEALTH CONDITIONS.
VITAL STATISTICS:
The Registrar General's estimate of the population of the
Borough in June, 1948, was 156,400, as compared with 158,670,
for the previous year, and 115,682, at the last census in 1931.
The number of live births decreased from 2,671, in 1947,
to 2,292 in 1948, giving a birth rate in 1948 of 14.65 per
thousand population as compared with 16.83, for 1947. The
birth rate for the Country generally was 20.5 in 1947 and 17.9
in 1948.
The number of deaths registered was 1,406 as compared
with l,522 in the previous year, giving a death rate of
8.9 per thousand as compared with 10.8 for the country
generally.
The infantile mortality rate, that being the number of
deaths of infants per thousand live births, was the lowest
figure yet recorded, namely, 21 as compared with 34 for the
country generally. The causes of the high infantile mortality
which prevailed for many years, namely, parental ignorance