Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health / Nairobi Municipality.

  • Nairobi (Kenya). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1946]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health / Nairobi Municipality. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/82 (page 4)
    Vital Statistics In preparing the Annual Report for 1946, some minor variations have been introduced in connection with the tabulating of the vital statistics and figures regarding infectious diseases. The practice has hitherto been to make racial sub-divisions, taking into consideration the small minorities existing within the Municipality. It has been thought that such distinctions do not make for clarity, but in fact, tend rather to confuse the issue. The evaluation of mortality or health statistics in respect of very small populations can lead to manifest fallacies, and it is best to avoid these by simply classifying the public of Nairobi under three main headings, Europeans, Asians, Africans and others. This is logical from the Public Health point of view since each community has its own standard of living, its own special environmental circum¬ stances, and its own set of health problems. For information, however, as to the unusual variety of races living in Nairobi, a table is given hereunder. (As the European figures are taken from the “Ration Book” Census recently held, it has not been possible to show these in separate races.) POPULATION FIGURES FOR NAIROBI as at 31st January, 1947 Source : Analysis of Commodity Distribution Board Records by the Statistical Section of Conference of E.A. Governors. (African from D.C.’s Records.) Race/Caste Males Females Total EUROPEAN . 4,988 5,389 10,377 GOAN . INDIAN 2,036 1,218 3,254 Hindu . 12,084 7,358 19,442 Sikh . 3,776 2,245 6,021 Mohammedan 4,587 3,649 8,236 Indian Christian 64 45 109 Parsee . 73 46 119 Baluchee 6 4 10 TOTAL 20,590 13,347 - - - ---1 33,937 SOMALI . 357 304 661 SEYCHELLOIS 284 323 607 ARAB 375 291 666 OTHERS * . 237 212 449 Children. AFRICANS . 47,043 7,015 6,742 60,800 GRAND TOTAL ... 75,910 28,099 —1 6,742 110,751 * OTHERS include :— Note :—These figures have been obtained Abyssinians from the analysis of those ration Cormorans book covers issued in Januarv. Mauritians 1947, which gave NAIROBI as the Chinese address, less any cancellation to Ceylonese Sudanese Persians Other Asiatics. 31st January, 1947.