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10
The relatively large natural increase of the population is in itself
evidence of the abnormal age constitution of the population, a state of
affairs natural to a rapidly growing community which inevitably contains
a relative preponderance of young adults. This in turn is reflected in a
high birth rate and in a low death rate. The age distribution of the
country as a whole is altering, and it is calculated that whereas in 1900
the number of persons over 65 years of age in Great Britain was 1,750,000,
and in 1937, 3,750,000, in 1951, the number will be 5,500,000 and they
will then constitute some 11½ per cent, of the population. Much is
heard these days of this increase in the number of the aged and the later
reduction in the number of producers which many seem to assume to be
due to improved conditions resulting in the longevity of greater numbers,
and it is anticipated that the change will be permanent. This, however,
is very largely not the case. The larger numbers of the aged in the
immediate future will result from the larger numbers of births some years
ago. This increase in the number of lives at certain ages is passing as a
wave through the population in succeeding years and will ultimately pass
right through, leaving the age distribution of the then smaller population
(smaller because of the smaller number of births for several years now)
altered, where it has been changed, mostly as the result of the saving
of the lives of infants rather than a wholesale prolongation of the lives
of adults. This evanescent character of the age distribution in which the
aged are in relatively high proportion suggests all the more need for the
temporary retention at work of all who can be producers rather than only
consumers. .
Births.
The number of 3,068 births in 1945 was a further fall on the figure
of 3,473 of 1944, which was just less than the 3,500 births in 1943, the
greatest number recorded for this district. The birth rate per thousand
population was 16.0. This figure has fluctuated in the last few years
from a minimum of 14.7 in 1941, to the maximum of 18.7 in 1944. The
figure for the country as a whole for last year was 16.1.
Deaths.
Taking 1939 as an average pre-war year as regards local vital statistics,
the 1,408 deaths were the greatest number which had occurred, and
yielded a death rate of 7.4 per thousand population. There was a sharp
increase to over 1,700 deaths in 1940, with the death rate of 9.1. This
deteriorated position has been maintained, the number of deaths in 1942
reaching 1,818, and for each year since, the death rate being 9.1 or 9.3.
In 1945, there were 1,732 deaths, yielding a death rate again of 9.1. The
fact that this is lower than the national rate of 11.4 is again probably
mostly attributable to the relative deficiency of the aged in the population.
Of the 1,061 deaths in the district, 92 were of non-residents. Of the
outward transferred deaths, 16 took place in the orthopaedic hospital,
8 at the Harrow hospital and 20 in nursing homes, this figure including
3 new-born babies.
Of the 760 deaths of local residents which occurred outside the area,
most took place in institutions, 326 being in Redhill Hospital, 48 at