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10
STATISTICS AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
OF THE AREA
Area (in acres) 12,555
Registrar-General's estimate of resident population, mid-year
1957 215,000
Rateable Value (1st April, 1957) £3,881,510
Sum represented by a penny rate (1st April, 1957) £15,802
Total number of occupied houses and flats 63,912
Extracts from Vital Statistics for the Year
Live Births:— Total Male Female
Legitimate 2,665 1,371 1,294 Birth rate per 1,000
Illegitimate 118 59 59 population 12-9
Total 2,783 1,430 1,353
Stillbirths:—
Legitimate 59 37 22 Rate per 1,000 births
Illegitimate 2 1 1 21-9
Total 61 38 23
Deaths 1,937 981 956 Rate per 1,000
population 9 0
Deaths of infants under one year of age 39.0
Infant mortality rate 14.0
Legitimate infant mortality rate 14.3
Illegitimate infant mortality rate 8.5
Deaths from pregnancy and childbirth: 1 Rate per 1.000 total
births 0.3
Deaths from Cancer 415
„ „ Measles 0
„ „ Whooping Cough 0
„ „ Tuberculosis 14
Population
The mid-year population of the district was estimated to be 215,000.
This includes members of the armed forces stationed in the district.
In each of the post-war years the population of the district increased
to reach the highest figure of 222,300 in 1950. From that time there has
been a slight fall each year in the estimated population, the mid-year 1957
figure of 215,000 being a fall of 1,200 on that of the previous year. This
fall took place in spite of the natural increase in population which is the
excess of births over deaths and which last year was 846. Some at least
of the fall is to be explained by the movement of some families out of
the district to new and to expanded towns. Quite apart from these
transfers though there is a steady movement of population in and out of
such districts as this.
A continuation of this annual decline in the population might result
in its reaching as low a figure as 200,000, one which it might perhaps
have been better had it never been exceeded. For it to fall now to this
level will not bring about a return to the position that would have obtained