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CHAPTER I.
VITAL STATISTICS.
1. The population of the Borough mid-1949 was estimated by
the Registrar-General to be 132,240—Civilian, 132,340—Total. 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, 1949, estimate of the
Registrar-General is that the population is 132,720. Wembley is
the fifth largest County district in Middlesex, those of greater
population being according to size—Harrow, Ealing, Willesden and
Hendon.
2. In 1949, 1,655 live births were recorded, giving a birth
rate of 12.52 per thousand. The number of deaths was 1,075
giving a crude death rate of 8.14 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
21.75, the previously lowest figure having been 21.97 in 1948.
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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