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PREFACE.
TO TEE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS OF THE
ROYAL BOROUGH OF KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES.
0
ANNUAL REPORT, 1945.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
As directed by the Minister of Health, this report
for 1945 is restricted to essential matters relating to
Public Health and social medicine. It is in the same
form as that for 1944.
Vital Statistics.
The Registrar-General's estimate of the population
was 35,760, an increase of 980 on the figure for 1944.
The number of live births was 593 giving a birth rate
of 16.58 as compared with 578 and a rate of 16.62 for 1944.
The number of deaths was 505 giving a crude death rate
of 14.12 as compered with 474 and a rate of 13.63 for 1994.
The excess of births over depths in 1.945 was 88 as
compared with 104 in 1944.
The number of deaths of infants under one year of age
was 26 as compared with 28 in 1944. The rate per 1,000
live births (Infant Mortality Rate) was 43.84 compared with
48 .44 in 1944 .
The Infant Mortality Rate, averaged for successive
quinquennial periods from 1925 onwards to 1944, declined
from 69 for the period ending 1925 to 55 for the period
ending 1944. The actual rate for 1925 was 73, for 1944
was 48, for 1945 43.84 as above. The highest rate in the
series was 76 in 1924, the lowest 26 in 1939.
The downward trend of this figure is continued in
1945, A lower figure must be aimed at because some of the
infant deaths at present occurring can be considered
preventable.
General Health of the People.
Judged upon such information as is directly available,
the health of the people generally remained good.
Three factors of great influence upon the health of
the people stand out as problems of an acute character
calling for energetic measures towards solution:-
1. Housing - There is a desperate shortage of Swelling
houses for all sections of the community which has led
to considerable and in many instances gross overcrowding.
The crowding of more then one family into houses which
were not designed for plural occupation and the subnormal
standard of living thus imposed has a most
damaging effect upon the physical end moral well-being
of the occupants. This situation hps called forth
vigorous efferts on the part of the Council but constant
danger to the health of the people remains with such
conditions.