View report page

INFANTILE MORTALITY
The deaths of infants under one year numbered 66, of which 36 were of males
and 30 of females. These deaths amounted to 6 43 per cent. of the total net
Shoreditch deaths from all causes as compared with 8.68 per cent. in 1936.
The infantile mortality rate (death rate of infants under one year) was 54 per
1,000 births registered during the year. For male infants the rate was 58 and for
females 50. The infant mortality rates in the different wards of the Borough are
included in Table No. 15 on page 30. The number of deaths of illegitimate infants
was 4, which gives a death rate of 85 per 1,000 illegitimate births.
Table No. 19 on page 34 gives the comparative infant mortality rates for
Shoreditch, London and England and Wales respectively.
It will be noted that the infant mortality rate for 1937 shows a welcome drop
from the figures for 1936, and apart from the year 1935 when it was 52 per thousand
births, the present figure of 54 per thousand births is a record low rate for the borough.
As mentioned in the last report, however, there are various causes of deaths in infants,
such as catarrhal conditions, diarrhoea and enteritis, etc., which vary greatly from
year to year, and although a still lower rate is the objective to be aimed at, it must not
be expected that fairly wide variations will be prevented from year to year.
The causes of the deaths of infants under one year of age, together with age and
ward distributions, are given in Table No. 20 facing page 34.