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CHIGWELL URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Chigwell Urban District Council.
MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I have pleasure in presenting to you the Annual Report
including the report of the Senior Sanitary Inspector, for the
year ending 31st December, 1952.
VITAL STATISTICS.
The birth-rate and general death-rate were both a little
smaller than in 1951. The rates have been adjusted to allow for
the way in which the sex and age distribution of the local population
differs from that for England & Wales as a whole, and it
will be observed that, while the local birth rate was about the
same as that for England & Wales, the local death rate (6.9) was
again very much below the national rate (11.3), as in previous
years. There were however, more deaths this year amongst
infants under 4 weeks of age, there being more non-surviving
cases of congenital defect and prematurity.
Live births exceeded deaths by 546. The remaining net increase
of population (3,124) was mostly due to rehousing of
London residents on the Debden Estate.
The winter of 1952/53 was exceptionally sunless, cold and
foggy, and this was clearly reflected in the abnormally high
incidence of chest diseases towards the close of the year: New
claims for National Insurance Sickness Benefits rose sharply
during the week ended 13th December (to almost double the
previous week's claims), and 19 deaths were registered as compared
with 10 in the previous week. The whole of the London
area experienced a similar large increase of sickness and mortality
at the same time (2,484 deaths compared with 945 in the
previous week). Influenza, pneumonia, and other chest diseases
were predominant causes of the increase, both locally and in
the London area generally.
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