[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Rhondda U.D.C.

  • Rhondda (Wales). Urban District Council.
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Rhondda U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/152 (page 21)
    AREA, POPULATION AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS. The area of the Rhondda Urban District remained unaltered during 1948, and covered 23,886 acres ; the greater portion of this area consists of mountain land and the declivitous sides of the mountains so that housing and recrea- tional facilities are limited to the lower portions of the valleys and mountain sides. Having regard to the density of housing in the smaller built-up area of the district and the lack of open spaces available for housing and for recreational and industrial development, there is an increasing need for the extension of the urban district in order that the community may be provided with adequate housing accommodation and the other amenities associated with modern industrial development. The estimated population of the district at mid-summer, 1948, was 112,800 persons, as compared with 111,840 persons at midsummer, 1947, and 141,346 persons enumerated at the census of 1931. The natural inciease of the population, oi the excess of the numbei of biiths over the number of deaths, during the year amounted to 669, equivalent to 5.9 per 1,000 of the estimated population. The natuial increase as indicated by the above proportion is the same as that recorded in 1947, but is lower than that recorded in 1946 by 0.5, the figure of 6.4 in the latter year being the highest since 1926 as compared with a minimum of 1.04 in 1938. As the district is entirely industrial in nature the social conditions prevailing in the area are principally dependent on a state of full employment amongst the inhabitants. During the year there was a certain amount of unemploy- ment, particularly amongst older male persons, who Were unable to obtain work in the mines owing to disablement resulting from previous employment in the mines and it is satisfactory to note that progress Was made in the erection