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 1889
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
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England and Wales (17.9) shews an increase of 0.l per 1000
compared with that of 1888 (17.8), which was the lowest recorded
in any year since civil registration began, in 1837.
The subjoined table shews the annual death-rate per 1000 persons living, in each of the last eleven years, in Kensington, in London as a whole, and in all England :—
| 1889. | 1888. | 1887. | 1886. | 1885. | 1884. | 1883. | 1882. | 1881. | 1880. | 1879. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington | 13.5 | 15.9 | 16.4 | 15.9 | 16.1 | 15.1 | 15.5 | 16.2 | 16.6 | 17.8 | 18.8 |
| London | 17.4 | 18.5 | 19.6 | 19.9 | 19.8 | 20.4 | 20.5 | 21.3 | 21.3 | 21.7 | 22.6 |
| W. Districts | 17.0 | 18.3 | 19.0 | 19.0 | 19.2 | 19.2 | 19.5 | 19.8 | 19.6 | 19.8 | 20.9 |
| North „ | 15.7 | 16.6 | 17.8 | 18.0 | 18.5 | 19.0 | 19.0 | 19.6 | 20.6 | 20.8 | 21.5 |
| Central „ | 24.1 | 25.7 | 26.1 | 25.4 | 24.4 | 24.9 | 24.1 | 24.4 | 23.5 | 23.8 | 26.3 |
| Bast „ | 20.2 | 21.8 | 22.5 | 23.2 | 22.5 | 22.9 | 24.1 | 25.2 | 24.2 | 24.3 | 25.5 |
| South „ | 16.6 | 17.2 | 18.6 | 19.1 | 18.5 | 19.7 | 19.5 | 20.6 | 20.5 | 21.3 | 21.8 |
| England and Wales | 17.9 | 17.8 | 18.8 | 19.3 | 19.0 | 19.5 | 19.5 | 19.6 | 18.9 | 20.5 | 20.7 |
The Registrar-General, in his "Annual Summary of Births,
Deaths, and Causes of Death in London," speaks of 1889 as " a
year of excessively low rates." The marriages, he states, give a
proportion of 16'3 persons married to 1000 of the population,
being a slight recovery from the rate in 1888 (16'1), the lowest
on record. The birth-rate, 30'3, is the lowest as yet recorded in
London, the rate having fallen continuously year after year since
1876. Nevertheless, in 1889, the excess of births over deaths, or
the natural increment, was 55,804, though it had averaged only
51,772 in the four immediately preceding years; so that the
decline in the birth-rate was more than compensated by the still
greater decline of mortality. The death-rate (17.4) is by far the
lowest as yet recorded in London ; moreover, the four next lowest
rates are those in the four immediately preceding years 1885-6-7-8,
when the figures were respectively 19.8, 19'9, 19'6, and 18.5.
Referring to the low death-rate in 1886, the Registrar-General
made an observation, equally true in regard to the still lower
death-rate in 1889, to the effect that the " marked decline in the
death-rates of recent years," for the decline lias been continuous
since 1882 (when it was 21.4), "has been doubtlessly in some
part due to the decline in the birth-rate, which must have