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5
Metropolitan Borough of Hackney
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1939.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Hackney, E.8.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
On the 19th July, 1940, the Ministry of Health issued Circular
No. 2067 which stated the view of the Minister that interim
reports only should be made for the year 1939, and that these reports
should be confined to essential and urgent matters. The Circular
also stated that suitable arrangements should be made for careful
preservation of all records in order that after the termination of
the war a report could be made dealing more fully with the period
from the beginning of 1939 to the end of the last complete year,
giving separate statistics for each year in order that the annual
records may, as far as practicable, be continuous and complete. It
is for this reason that my Annual Report on the health of the
Borough in the year 1939 is considerably curtailed and consists
largely of statistical data.
The birth rate continued its downward trend and reached the
low level of 13.1, a smaller rate than was registered during any of
the years of the war of 1914 to 1918. The birth rate for England
and Wales was 15.0, and for the County of London 12.31.
The death rate was 11.3 (corrected rate 11.8) and was slightly
higher than the corresponding rate for the two preceding years.
The death rate for England and Wales was 12.1 and for the County
of London 11.9. The infant mortality rate, however, dropped to
the new low record of 40.9 per 1,000 births, the rates for England