Report on the public health / Southern Rhodesia.

  • Southern Rhodesia. Department of Health.
Date:
[1947]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the public health / Southern Rhodesia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/50 (page 3)
    officers are applying for appointments. Whilst not all of these are of the lequired standard, those appointed have worked loyally and well. One serious limitation on the expansion of staff and the improvement of their working conditions has been the lack of accommodation and housing. The figures of the vital statistics which follow show a satisfactory state of affairs in all sections. The annual birth rate per 1,000 at 29.5 is a record, and ‘s nearly double that obtaining in England and Wales in the years immediately preceding the War. CHAPTER I.—VITAL STATISTICS. The Department of Statistics carried out a census of the African population in one district using a method which greatly reduces the errors usually associated with this type of census. This is a most important advance and raises hopes that soon reasonably accurate information about the African population will be available; information which is vital to sound economic and public health planning. The pilot census showed that in the area chosen, the birth rate was between 46 and 50 per 1,000, and the infant mortality rate about 120 per 1,' (1) Population of Southern Rhodesia. The population is estimated at the 30th Ju 1947. Europeans . 89,500 Asiatics . 3,090 Coloured Persons . 4,750 Natives . 1,773,000 Total . 1,870,340 The first three classes are subjected to regular census examination. (2) Summarised Vital Statistics. The vital statistical information regarding the European population is given below and compared with the figures for 1942 and 1938. 1947. 1942. 1938. Estimated European population . 89,500 78,810 58,870 Rate of natural increase per 1,000 . 21.5 14.5 15.6 Gross number of immigrants. 13,595 469 3,509 Number of European births . 2,637 1,873 1,469 Illegitimate births included above . 40 25 23 Annual birth rate per 1,000 . 29.5 23.8 25.0 Number of European deaths. 718 728 548 Crude death rate per 1,000 .:. 8.0 9.2 9,3 Number of infant deaths. 101 75 57 Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births. 38 40 39 Number of still births (not included in either births or deaths) . 48 29 31 Number of maternal deaths . 4 2 3 Maternal mortality rate per 1,000 live births . 1.5 1.1 2.0 (3) European Birth Rates. Southern Rhodesia . 29.5 23.8 25.0 England and Wales . 20.5 15.8 15.1 Union of South Africa . 27.1 25.2 25.1 (4) European Infant Deaths. (I) Causes of death, 1938-47. No. of Percentage Disease. Deaths. of Total. Premature birth and diseases of early infancy . 408 54.62 Bronchitis and pneumonia . .. . 65 8.70 Diarrhoea and enteritis . .. . 94 12.59 Malaria .. ...... . .. 50 6.69 Measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, dysentery . 28 13.75 Various, not classified above . — — . 102 13.65 >00 live births. le, each year. 1942. 78,810 2,700) 4,050/ 1,452,000 1938. 58,870 5,670 1,311,000 1,537,560 1,373,540 747 100.00