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Population.
The fluctuations in the population figures are less marked than the
changes which occurred. The variations in numbers give no indication
of the vast changes in the position. In 1941 (the district was not then
an evacuation area) the weekly average number of children under six
years of age admitted to the district was 65, the weekly average of those
leaving being 52. Movement of population on this scale with all the
disturbances of family life involved must have had its own effect on
health conditions. It resulted, too, in other changes more statistical
than actual, e.g., increases in the number of notifications of those suffering
from tuberculosis in that sufferers would be notified in the new district
while their names might not be off the register of the districts in which
they previously resided. Apart from changes in the position due to
movements of population though, there would follow other effects;
the age distribution would be altered by the recruitment of the various
combatant forces. Those withdrawn from the local civilian population
would be of two decades of low fatality; this accounts for some at least
of the increase in the death rates.
Births.
The number of births has fluctuated markedly, so the birth rate
has ranged from 14.7 to 18.2. The increase in the national rate from
the year 1941 when the effective reproduction rate was 0.76 to reach
that of 0.99 for 1944 suggests that there is little in many of the explanations
offered to account for the decline in the birth rate which affected this
country as well as many others, and which had been such a marked
feature this century.