[Report 1890] / Medical Officer of Health, Salford County Borough.

  • Salford (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1890] / Medical Officer of Health, Salford County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/100 (page 12)
    Population. General Mortality. General Mortality compared. Estimated Population.—The estimated population of the County Borough of Salford to the middle of the year 1890 was 216,830, and comprised 104,100 males and 112,730 females. The estimated numbers of males and females at particular ages will be found in Table B of this report. The actual increase of the population—that is, the excess of births over deaths— amounted, however, to only 1,565, as against 2,111 in the year 1889. I am glad to record that there was a further decrease in the percentage of illegitimate births to the total births for the whole borough as compared with the numbers for the year 1889, and also as compared with the average numbers for the previous ten years, as may be seen in Table C of this report. This decrease has been most marked in the Pendleton and Broughton districts of the borough. The density of the population is as usual very variable, and, as may be seen on reference to Table A of this report, the range of density is between the limits of 22*9 persons in Pendleton and 121T persons per acre in the Greengate district. Annual Rate of Mortality.—The total deaths for the year 1890 numbered 5,533—2,816 being deaths of males and 2,717 being deaths of females. The death-rate for the borough was equal, therefore, to 25-1 per 1,000 of the estimated population, a rate unfortunately as much as 2*1 per 1,000 in excess of the mean rate for the quinquennial period 1881-85, and i-4 per 1,000 more than the mean for the five-year period whicli it closes. It will be seen, however, further on in this report that this higher general mortality was due in chief degree to causes outside the control of the sanitary authority, among which causes acute lung diseases played the prominent part. In arriving at the correct general death-rate of the borough, account was taken of the deaths of persons belonging to the borough who died outside its boundaries, as well as of persons not belonging to Salford who died within its area. Of the former, there were 81 deaths; of the latter, 21 deaths. The deaths of Salford residents outside the borough were distributable as follows:—Children’s Hospital, Pendlebury, 38; Manchester Royal Infirmary, 29; Monsall Hospital, 6; St. Mary’s Hospital, 8. The year 1890 brings another quinquennial period to an end, and, as has been already observed, the general mortality rate for the borough has for this period been slightly raised by the exceptional mortality of the year 1890, as against the mean rate for the quinquennial period 1881-85. Table A shows the mean quinquennial death-rates for the whole borough in rates per 1,000 of the population from 1861 to 1890 inclusive, and these mean general mortality-rates for the borough are respectively 26*3, 27*9, 28*3, 27*5, 22*9, and 237. During the last period, however, there have been two special and widespread epidemics of scarlet- fever and diphtheria in the borough, which ^lone might have been