View report page

6
BIRTHS.
The number of live births registered during the year was 805
which corresponds to a Birth Rate of 15.1 per 1,000 of population.
This is a very marked fall as compared with the previous year when
the births numbered 1,066 and the rate was 20.3. The number of
still-births was 21 and the Still-Birth Rate 26 per 1,000 births.
In 1947 the Still-Birth Rate was 19.3.
DEATHS.
The number of deaths credited to Wood Green after the necessary
adjustments had been made for inward and outward transfers
was 520. This gives a Death Rate of 9.8 per 1,000 of population,
which compares very favourably with the Rate for 1947 which was
12.4, and is the lowest rate recorded since 1928. Of the total of 520
deaths no fewer than 373 or 71 per cent. occurred at ages over 65.
95 deaths occurred at ages over 80, and 12 at ages over 90.
The individual causes of death are given in Table III in the
Appendix. It will be seen there that as in all recent years the chief
cause of death is heart disease, which was responsible for 155 deaths.
Other diseases of the circulatory system caused 19 deaths, and
intra-cranial vascular lesions 50 deaths, so that in all 224 deaths
out of a total of 520 were attributed to diseases of the heart and
circulation. This very high proportion of deaths attributed to
diseases of the heart and circulation, as I have stated in previous
reports, does not necessarily mean that there is a serious increase of
heart disease in the community. The great majority of these deaths
are of people in the later decades of life, so that the number of deaths
from heart disease reflects the progressive ageing of the population.
The number of deaths due to respiratory disease, apart from
pulmonary tuberculosis was 62. Pulmonary tuberculosis was
responsible for 21 deaths and other types of tuberculosis for 5. There
were 97 deaths from cancer.
Only two deaths occurred from the principal zymotic diseases.
There were no deaths from enteric fever, smallpox, scarlet fever,
diphtheria, measles or whooping cough, but two from diarrhoea in
children under two years.
The Zymotic Death Rate was 0.03 per 1,000 of population.