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6
Births.
The total number of live births registered during the year was
3,226 (1,623 male and 1,603 female). Of these, 118 were illegitimate,
being a percentage of total births of 3.7. The number of live births
registered in each of the years from 1944 onwards was 3,473, 3,068,
3,934 and 3,828.
1,882 births occurred in the district (1,861 live and 21 still births).
Of this number, 390 (387 live and 3 still births) were to residents of other
districts. 1,645 (1,610 live and 35 still) birth notifications were transferred
from other districts, being mostly of births occurring to Harrow
mothers in Middlesex County Council or in London Hospitals.
The birth rate for each of the years from 1914 was 18.7, 16.0, 18.0,
17.7 and 14.7 in 1948.
These higher local rates were in accord with what has occurred
throughout the country as a whole, when for the first time since 1923 the
number of births in 1946 was sufficient to raise the reproduction rate
above unity. This rate during the nineteenth century had been well
above the standard necessary to maintain the population, being for
the years from 1880 to 1890 some 50 per cent, above this. By 1922,
however, the rate had fallen below the standard, and it was not until
1946 that it rose above it, being in this year 11 per cent. above, and in
1947 20 per cent, above.
69 (43 male and 26 female) stillbirths were registered, being a rate
per 1,000 population of 0 32 compared with a figure of 0.42 for the
country as a whole.
Deaths.
Of the 1,837 deaths which occurred in the district, 107 were of persons
who were not residents of this area. Twenty-four of these took place
in the various hospitals, 43 in nursing homes and 2 in Oxhey Grove,
a home for the elderly.
Of the 710 deaths of local residents which occurred outside the
district, most took place in institutions, 254 being in Redhill County
(later the Edgware General) Hospital, and 78 at other county institutions.
Five deaths occurred in institutions for the treatment of the tuberculous,
and 4, all of new-born infants, at maternity institutions. Fifty-six
deaths took place in hospitals just outside the district, including 9 deaths
in near-by isolation hospitals, and 157 in the various London hospitals.
The following is the Registrar-General's abridged list of causes of
death in this district :—-
Male Female
Typhoid fever 0 1
Cerebro-spinal fever 0 0
Scarlet fever 0 0
Whooping cough 2 2
Diphtheria 0 0
Resp. tuberculosis 43 33
Other tuberculosis 8 7
Syphilitic diseases 6 4
Male Female
Heart disease 254 243
Other circ. diseases 38 53
Bronchitis 59 23
Pneumonia 44 35
Other resp. diseases 12 6
Ulcer of stomach 16 5
Diarrhoea under 2 years 6 3
Appendicitis 4 2