Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health [to] the Corporation of the City of Capetown.

  • Cape Town (South Africa). City Health Department.
Date:
[1974]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health [to] the Corporation of the City of Capetown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/146 (page 8)
    SECTION II - VITAL STATISTICS The vital statistics in this report refer to the Municipality of Cape Town and are for the calender year 1974. Births notified to the department are attributed to the month of occurrence, deaths to the date of registration. Both sets of figures have been corrected for inward and outward transfers. The compilation of registered births has been discontinued. Deaths are shown as 'crude' or 'uncorrected' and include all registrations as having occurred in the Munici¬ pality of Cape Town with the addition of inward transfers. 'Corrected' refers to the foregoing after the deduction of outward transfers. Information relating to deaths is extracted from the records and by courtesy of the Minister of the Interior. In the table on page 114 of this report, the record of vital statistical rates is set out for a series of years. The Bantu racial group includes all Bantu whether living in the City or in the townships of Langa and Guguletu. POPULATION The estimated population of the municipality of Cape Town for the year under review and the previous year is shown in the following table, Except in the case of the Bantu, it is calculated for the middle of the period (30 June) from the final figures of the census of 1960 and 1970. Changing conditions relating to the presence of Bantu in the City have rendered preferable the use of the tally of the Bantu population known to the Bantu Affairs Administration Board, as being more factual than calculations based on the census findings. Race 1973 1974 Males Females Persons Males Females Persons White 115440 127160 242600 117155 129045 246200 Coloured Bantu ... Asiatic 201070 60330 5300 226670 29920 4890 427740 90250 10190 208574 63050 5440 235136 31950 5030 443710 95000 10470 Non-White 266700 261480 528180 277064 272116 549180 All Races 382140 388640 770780 394219 401161 795380 The following is the average population of the two Bantu Townships, included in previous table, based on an enumeration made at the end of each month by the Township authorities. Males Females Persons Langa 27566 4304 31020 Guguletu 27665 25525 53190 HEALTH INDICATORS These tables indicate a steady rise in the percentage of deaths occurring at age 55 and over in the White and Coloured racial groups of the population, over the past ten years. The trends can be accepted as a satisfactory indication that the general environmental and health services are having the desired effect. More persons are attaining the age of 55 years than formerly and, generally speaking, it is the female who enjoys the longer span of life.