[Report 1939] / Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham.

  • Birmingham (England). Council.
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1939] / Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Department, for their unfailing and vigorous collaboration throughout the year. I should wish also to record my grateful thanks to the Air Raids Precautions Committee, the Public Works Committee, the Education Committee, the Parks Committee, the Public Assistance Committee, the Mental Hospitals Committee, the Salvage and Stables Committee, and the Markets and Fairs Committee and their respective Chief Officers for very much helpful co-operation and support. To the Town Clerk and his staff, to the City Surveyor and the A.R.P. Officer as my closest colleagues in other Departments in the most pressing pre-occupations of the >ear, I should like especially to express my thanks for their generous spirit of comradeship. Population Data are not available for accurate estimation of population since the outbreak of war, for there is no measure, open to the Department, either of those who have left the City on military service, or of those who have entered it at the call of industry. We must therefore be content merely with recording the population as calculated for the mid-year (30th June, 1939), viz. :— Medical Officer of Health’s estimate (1939) 1,055,000 Registrar-General’s estimate (1938) 1,041,000 Death Rate During 1939 there were 12,003 deaths of Birmingham residents, which give a death rate of 11.4 per 1,000 of population compared with 10.9 for 1 1938. ' Birth Rate | I Taking live births as 17,250, the birth rate is 16.4 of population, com- I pared with 16.6 for 1938. ] Infant Mortality Rate There were 1,031 infant deaths during 1939, which gives an infant mortality rate, based on the birth figures of the previous paragraph, of sixty per 1,000 births, as against sixty-one for last year. This is equal to the lowest rate ever attained in the City, reached previously only in 1930 and 1937. Maternal Mortality A reduction is again recorded in the maternal mortality rate, as there were forty-three maternal deaths during 1939, giving a figure of 2.49 per 1,000 live births, against 2.81 for 1938. This rate has fallen with almost steady consistency since 1934.