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 1882
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
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Workhouse, and at other public or quasi-public institutions, that
have been retained in the vital statistics by way of compensation
for deaths of parishioners, at public institutions and elsewhere,
outside the parish; but it does not include deaths of nonparishioners
at the Marylebone Infirmary, Notting Hill, to
which some reference will be made in another part of the
report.
The 2,691 deaths were equal to a rate of 16.2 per 1,000 persons
living, this being 2.2 per 1,000 below the decennial rate, and 5.2
per 1,000 below the Metropolitan rate (21.4), which, moreover,
was 1.3 per 1,000 below the mean rate in the previous ten years.
The rate in all England 19.6 per 1,000, was 1.4 per 1,000
below the decennial average, being the lowest rate recorded in
any year, 1881 only excepted, since civil registration was established
in 1837.
The subjoined table shows the annual death-rate per 1,000 persons living in Kensington in each of the last eleven years, and, for sake of comparison, the rate in the Metropolis and its several districts, and the rate in all England:–
| Death Rate. | 1882. | 1881. | 1880. | 1879. | 1878. | 1877. | 1876. | 1875. | 1874. | 1873. | 1872 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington | 16.2 | 16.6 | 17.8 | 18.8 | 20.2 | 17.3 | 19.5 | 19.2 | 19.4 | 18.3 | 17.6 |
| London | 21.4 | 21.2 | 21.7 | 22.6 | 23.1 | 21.5 | 21.9 | 23.5 | 22.4 | 22.4 | 21.4 |
| W. Districts | 19.9 | 19.6 | 19.8 | 20.9 | 21.6 | 19.2 | 20.9 | 22.2 | 20.9 | 20.5 | 19.6 |
| North „ | 19.7 | 20.6 | 20.8 | 21.5 | 22.0 | 21.5 | 22.1 | 22.1 | 21.7 | 21.1 | 21.1 |
| Central,, | 23.9 | 23.2 | 23.4 | 26.0 | 25.1 | 24.2 | 24.1 | 26.2 | 25.6 | 25.1 | 23.6 |
| East „ | 25.3 | 24.2 | 24.3 | 25.5 | 25.0 | 24.5 | 23.9 | 25.7 | 25.5 | 25.2 | 23.6 |
| South „ | 20.7 | 20.5 | 21.3 | 21.8 | 23.0 | 20.5 | 21.2 | 23.3 | 21.0 | 21.7 | 20.6 |
| England and Wales | 19.6 | 18.9 | 20.5 | 20.7 | 21.6 | 20.3 | 20.9 | 22.7 | 22.2 | 21.0 | 21.3 |
The Registrar-General in his Annual Summary, referring to
the mortality in all London states that "The rate in the
immediately preceding year was 21.2, and the rate in 1850 was
only 21.0, but with these exceptions the rate in 1882 (21.4)
was the lowest on record, having however been exactly equalled
in 1872. Had the deaths in 1882 equalled the annual average
of the preceding decade, allowance being made for increase of
population, 3,099 persons would have died in the course of the
year, who, as it was, were alive at its close." The rate in the
"Outer Ring" of London was 17.4. The rate in the 27 extra