London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1881
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
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at St. Joseph's House, Notting Hill, and at other public or quasipublic
institutions, which are retained in our vital statistics by
way of compensation for deaths of parishioners that may have taken
place at public institutions and elsewhere outside the parish; but it
does not include the 129 deaths of non-parishioners that took place
at the Marylebone New Infirmary at Notting Hill, which was
opened during the summer, and to which reference will be made
later on.
The 2,726 deaths were equal to a rate of 16.6 per 1,000 persons
living, or 2.2 per 1,000 below the decennial rate, and 4.6 per 1,000
below the Metropolitan rate, which again was 1.3 per 1,000 below
the mean rate in the previous ten years. The rate in all England
and Wales was 18.9 per 1,000, or 2.9 below the average, being
the lowest rate recorded in England and Wales in any year since
Civil Registration was established in 1837.
The subjoined table shews the death-rates in Kensington for the last 9 years, as compared with those of the whole Metropolis, and of the several districts thereof, and those of England and Wales.
| Death Rate. | 1881. | 1880. | 1879. | 1878. | 1877. | 1876. | 1875. | 1874. | 1873. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington | 16.6 | 18.0 | 19.1 | 20.3 | 17.3 | 19.5 | 19.4 | 19.5 | 18.3 per 1,000 | |
| London | 21.2 | 22.2 | 23.3 | 23.5 | 21.9 | 22.3 | 23.7 | 22.5 | 22.5 | „ |
| W. Districts | 19.5 | 19.9 | 29.4 | 21.6 | 19.1 | 21.0 | 22.1 | 20.9 | 20.5 | „ |
| North „ | 20.6 | 21.2 | 22.7 | 22.3 | 21.8 | 21.4 | 22.3 | 21.8 | 21.2 | „ |
| Central „ | 23.0 | 23.2 | 25.2 | 24.9 | 24.1 | 24.0 | 26.0 | 25.6 | 25.0 | „ |
| East „ | 24.2 | 24.3 | 25.8 | 24.9 | 24.4 | 24.0 | 25.5 | 25.4 | 25.2 | „ |
| South „ | 20.4 | 22.8 | 24.2 | 24.2 | 21.3 | 22.1 | 25.0 | 21.5 | 22.0 | „ |
| England | 18.9 | 20.6 | 10.8 | 21.7 | 20.4 | 21.0 | 22.8 | 22.3 | 21.1 | „ |
| and Wales | ||||||||||
The Registrar-General in his Annual Summary, referring to the
rate of mortality in all London (21.2 per 1,000), states that "only
once since civil registration began, had a lower death-rate than this
been recorded in the Metropolis, namely in 1850, when the rate
was 21.0." He adds that " the mean annual rate in the immediately
preceding decennium (1871-80) was 22.5" and observes
that "had the mortality in 1881 been at this rate, 4,849 would
have died in the course of the year, who, as it was, were alive at
its close." The rate of mortality in Kensington, the lowest on
record, was much below that of the Metropolis: the parish is less
favourably distinguished, however, as we shall see hereafter, by an
exceptionally low birth-rate, and this in spite of its high marriagerate.