[Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, Eccles Borough.

  • Eccles (Greater Manchester, England). Borough Council.
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, Eccles Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/58 (page 3)
    ANNUAL REPORT of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1949 TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS OF THE BOROUGH OF ECCLES. /»■ Ladies and Gentlemen, I have to submit my Annual Report on the work of the Public Health Department for the year 1949, the last of a series of twenty- nine reports. In my annual report for 1947,1 surveyed the Maternity and Child Welfare Work which has been carried out in the Borough from 1910 until the responsibility for this work was transferred to the County Council by the provisions of the National Health Service Act, 1948. In the report for last year I dealt with the incidence of diphtheria in the Borough from 1891 and of measles and whooping cough since they became notifiable, in this report I have taken the opportunity of reviewing the health of the district since my appointment. During the past thirty years the population of the Borough has remained practically stationary. At the Census of 1921 the population was 44,760, and in 1931 it was 44,770. From 1931 there was a steady but slight decline in the population until 1938, due to a declining birthrate, when the population was estimated to be 42,550. During the war years the population used for statistical purposes excluded members of the armed forces with the result that in 1944 it was estimated to be 39,430. With the return of personnel from the forces and an increased birth rate since 1946, the population now is 43,980. When the mortality statistics of the last few years are com- pared with those of the period 1921-1925, striking progress in the saving of life is evident. The expectation of life at birth is now much longer, the mortality in the early years of life has been considerably reduced, people are living to a greater age, and the proportion of people beyond the age of 65 years has increased markedly. During the period 1921-1925 the annual average number of deaths of persons under 15 years of age was 113 per annum, while during the last five years the annual average has been 50, a reduction