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CHAPTER. 1.
VITAL STATISTICS.
1. The population of the Borough mid-1948 was estimated
by the Registrar-General to be 131,700. In 1931 (the last census
date) the population of the two districts, Wembley and Kingsbury,
was 65,197; in 1937 the population had become 114,700,
while the last (December, 1948) estimate of the Registrar-General
is that the population is 132,600. Wembley is the fifth largest
County district in Middlesex, those of greater population being
according to size — Harrow, Ealing, Willesden and Hendon.
2. In 1948, 1,821 live births were recorded, giving a birth
rate of 13.83 per thousand. The number of deaths was 1,042
giving a crude death rate of 7.92 per thousand estimated population.
The infantile mortality rate was exceedingly low, the death
rate of infants per thousand live births being the record one of
21.97, the previously lowest figure having been 23.26 in 1947.
3. Prematurity of birth was again the main cause of the
deaths in very young infants. Regarding the figures submitted in
the statistics on infantile mortality and on survival of premature
infants, it has to be pointed out that the figures in the former
table are those regarding births to Wembley residents whether
the birth took place in Wembley or elsewhere, whereas the figures
relating to survival of premature infants at the end of 24 hours
and at the end of a month are only of births taking place within
the Borough boundary. Much consideration is being given to
the problem of prematurity and the possibility of saving premature
births at the present time, and from the Wembley figures
it is obvious that attack on this problem is now practically the
only way one may expect a decrease in infant mortality rates in
the Borough.
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