BRITISH VITAL STATISTICS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 October 1929, Page 8

BRITISH VITAL STATISTICS

THE MEDICAL TABLES. The Registrar-General’s Statistical Review for 1928 (the Medical Tables) contains much interesting information regarding the birth, death and accident rates in the Old Country. The salient features of the report are:— The birth-rate for the year 1928 was 16.7. This is, with one exception the lowest birth-rate recorded since the establishment of civil registration the lowest rates previously being these for 1918 (the last year of the war), viz., 17.7, and for 1927, viz., 16.6 per lOCO population. The death-rate was 11.7, against 12.3 per 1000 population in 1927, and, with two exceptions, in 1923 and 1926, when the rate was 11.6 per iCCO, was the lowest rate ever recorded. As in 1923 and 1926, these low rates were due to mild weather experienced during the first quarter of the year. The deaths of infants under one year of age were at a rate of 65 per. 1000 births, the lowest infant mortality rate ever recorded; it compares with 69 for 1923 and 70 for 1926 and 1927. The mortality from the epidemic diseases, showed a decrease as compared with the previous year, largely due to the lower mortality from influenza, this being 196 per million living, as against 567 for the preceding year, and the lowest rate from this disease since 1914. The mild winter was responsible for the abnormally low mortality of 1507 per million from diseases of the respiratory system, which is .the lowest death-rate yet recorded from these diseases.

The death-rate from .cancer was 1425 per million living, increased from 1376 in the previous year, and the highest crude death-rate recorded. This 'increase is approximately equal for the two sexes.

i Diseases of the circulatory system which over some few years to about 1920 had shown a decline, have (except for 1923) shown in recent years a steady rise, being Tor the years 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927 and 1928 respectively 2044, 2460, 2181, 2489 and 2669 per million living. The deaths of women from- puerperal sepsis and accidents of pregnancy and childbirth were equal to a rate of 4.42 per 1000 live births; this rate is the highest recorded in the eighteen years for which comparable figures are available. The rate for suicide showed a slight decline from 125 to 124 per million living, this lower figure being a result of the lower Me for males, the rate for females showing, a slight increase —though the'rate for females is always much lower"tbani that for males.

Deaths returned 'by coroners as legating from motor vehicular accidents increased from 4492 in 192/ to 5251 in 1928. Exclusive of collisions between two different types of vehicles, the deaths caused by motor-cars increased from 1292 to 1550, and those by mot-or-cycles from 940 to 1043.