Report of the Medical Officer of Health / Municipality of Colombo.

  • Colombo (Sri Lanka). Public Health Department
Date:
[1921]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health / Municipality of Colombo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/80 (page 3)
    Race. All Races Europeans Burghers Sinhalese Tamils] Moors Malays Others (2) Population. Population enumerated at the Census of March 18, 1921. 244,163 2,836 14,863 114,600 54,163 39,692 5,852 12,167 (3) Area and Population by Wards, 1921. Total Area Population Density Ward. in Aores. at Census, 1921. per Acre. Fort 237 2,690 (10) 113 Pettah 129 7,601 (5) 58-8 San Sebastian 121 11,492 (2) 94-8 St. Paul's 157 23,395 (1) 118-6 Kotahena 1,716 46,171 (7) 26-9 New Bazaar 289 23,341 (3) 79-7 Maradana 1,773 . .. 57,528 (6) 32-5 Slave Island 322 21,564 (4) 66-7 Kollupitiya 1,465 23,752 (8) 16-2 Wellawatta 2,061 26,629 (9) 12-9 The Lake 317 — — Colombo Town 8,587 244,163 28-4 Housing.—The following statement, the details of which were kindly furnished by the Works Engineer, shows the amount of land in Colombo which is available for building purposes :— Housing Problem. (4) Area available for Building Purposes. Ward. Crown land available for Building. Land without road Frontage. Land under Flood Level. Land available for building on immediately. A. B. P. A. B. p. A. B. p. A. B. P. Fort 3 2 21 — • , . -- Pettah . . 17 0 7 — — — San Sebastian 2 0 34 — — — St. Paul’s — 3 2 20 . — 0 1 25 Kotahena . . 10 0 29 .. 26 0 27 . . 727 0 13 . . 60 3 35 New Bazaar — 4 3 35 . . 72 0 0 — Maradana .. 13 3 11 . . 16 0 8 . . 926 0 0 .. 30 2 38 Slave Island .. 11 1 29 — — 6 0 34 Kollupitiya .. 26 1 10 . . 23 1 16 . . 60 0 0 . . 103 3 28 Wellawatta . . 46 3 36 .. 143 0 0 . . 382 0 0 . . 288 2 36 Total .. 131 2 17 217 0 26 2,167 0 13 490 3 36 3.—Births. 8,724 births were registered during the year, giving a rate of 35'7 per 1,000, as against the average of 24*7. This remarkable increase in the birth-rate, which is depicted on the accompanying diagram, began during the fourth quarter of 1919, after a rather marked drop which occurred during the third quarter of that year, the drop being apparently attributable to the severe epidemic of influenza during the last quarter of the previous year. In this connection it is interesting to find that although the birth¬ rate of Colombo town recovered from the influenza epid< mic almost immediately, and had already regained the normal within three months, the birth-rate of the Colombo District, which includes the adjacent rural areas, did not recover until more than a year later. This seems to indicate that the rural districts suffered more severely than the town from influenza, or that some other adverse factor, such as malaria perhaps, was operating in these rural areas. The sudden great rise in the birth-rate during 1921 undoubtedly indicates the previous occurrence of a marked influx of young adult population, which in turn no doubt resulted from an improvement in the economic conditions. That such an improvement did actually occur, having in fact begun in 1919, is shown by the statistics of the Post Office Savings Bank, which were kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. Lovett, the Accountant of the General Post Office. The rise in the birth-rate was most marked in the case of the Sinhalese, with an increase of no less than 16-4 per 1,000 compared with their average; the Malays came next with an increase of IT7 compared with their average; Moors next with 7*7; then Burghers with 5'6 ; Tamils with 5*3 ; and Europeans with only 3*3. It seems probable that these figures represent fairly accurately the relative improvement in prosperity of the several races.