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The total deaths from all causes was 628 and the total
live births 1,151, giving, therefore, a natural increase of
population of 523.
The appended table sets out the comparison for the past
five years of the local infant mortality rate with that for
England and Wales. It will be seen that the local rate is
consistently very considerably below that for the whole
country; in the last two years approximately half.
England and Wales. Merton and Morden.
1940 55 34.3
1941 59 42.5
1942 49 33.9
1943 49 23.5
1944 46 28.7
The number of illegitimate births has dropped slightly
and it is to be hoped and anticipated that, when the abnormal
conditions through which we have passed in recent years disappear,
this problem will become less acute. It is perhaps
noteworthy.that the illegitimate infant mortality rate in our
district is 40.8 per 1,000 live births, compared with the
legitimate mortality rate of 28.1. This bears out the general
experience that the chances of survival of an infant born to
an unmarried mother is only about half as good as that of a
child of a married woman.
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