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104
ANOTHER FIVE YEARS OF FIGURES
The Annual Report for 1953 contained a table of figures of the
various vital statistics for the district in each year since the creation of
the new district in 1934. This further table adds another five years to that
and for purposes of comparison, the figures for certain years have been
included.
The earlier figures show that the district is in many ways reaching
stability. The population which reached a peak figure of 222,300 in
1950 is now showing a slight fall each year, something which is all to the
good. The births over these years have been remarkably uniform and as
the population has not changed much, the birth rate is more or less stable
at a figure appreciably below those in the earlier years of the Council's
life when the erection of large numbers of houses resulted in many new
young families coming to live here. The post war years also show a rise
in the number of births resulting in a high birth rate ; but in and since
1953, the birth rate has been between 12 0 and 13 0.
In most of the recent years, the number of deaths in any one year has
been between 1,900 and 2,000. This, of course, is a marked contrast with
the numbers of the pre-war years, even those in which the population
figure was not so very much smaller than that today. The smaller number
of deaths in those years were of course, due to the same cause as the
larger number of births—namely, that the many houses which were
being erected were being occupied by young families, those with a very
low death rate. It could, of course, only be a matter of time before this
population in turn began to reach the age at which death more commonly
occurs and the general age structure of the population approximate
more to that of the country as a whole. Until that position has been
reached, it can be expected that the trend will be towards bigger numbers of
deaths and a higher death rate. The Registrar-General assesses the
abnormality of these age-structures and allocates to each district a comparability
mortality index. That for this district last year was 119. As
long as it continues to be above unity, it can be expected that the number
of deaths will increase.
The infant mortality rate, except for a recession during some of the
war years, has fallen more or less steadily all the time, maintaining its
favourable position as compared with the rate for the country as a whole.
It is now based on such a comparatively small number of deaths that
considerable fluctuations can occur from year to year without these
being of any special significance. Except for rising to 211 in 1956, the
infant mortality rate has been below 20 since 1953.
For many years, the maternal mortality rate of the country at a
figure of about 4 per thousand births was a reproach to the Heart
Services. For a number of years now the figure has been about 1
thousand. Only once since 1951 has the local figure exceeded this,
such a low level, one or two additional deaths can cause a large rise in
local rate.