[Report 1969] / Medical Officer of Health, Lakes U.D.C.

  • Lake District (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1969
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1969] / Medical Officer of Health, Lakes U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/36 (page 8)
    COMMENTARY ON THE VITAL STATISTICS. There is the simple fact that 6,061 persons were counted in this Urban District on the Census night of 23rd/24th April in 1961. But this is a holiday area, and also contains some residential schools. So when all the papers were sorted out, the Registrar-General reckoned that our own residential population in 1961 was really 5,082. That is a base-line for comparing the present mid-year estimate of 5,250, an increase of 168 persons. We have always recognised that this District relies heavily on immigration to maintain our numbers, and these are usually people who come to live here on retirement. This has caused us to have a much higher proportion of elderly people in our local community than in most other districts. The average percentage of people over 65 years of age in England and Wales was 11.9% at the 1961 Census, and the average for Westmorland was 14.9%. Lakes Urban District had 3:6.5%. It means also that the younger age-groups will have to keep awake to provide the community support which elderly people need to make their survival achievements worthwhile. A proper perspective cannot be obtained by considering merely one year’s changes. It is the general trend of population which is important for the planning of your future housing, water and sewer¬ age requirements, and for the broader issues of the economic prosperity of your District. Birth Rate. Your birth rate, both crude and corrected, were as usual far below the national average. Death Rate. Your death rate was above the national rate. It fluctuates either side from year to year, but it is never far from the national figure. I do not attach much significance to those variations. Heart disease and cancer take the biggest toll. Mountain Accidents. Accidents on our mountains are a special hazard in this District. A regular toll of death and suffering happens every year. Most of these accidents are preventable, and they mostly affect our visitors. The inexperienced, the unlucky, and the foolhardy, fall out of crags while rock-climbing, lose themselves in the dark and the mist and snow. The physically unfit die of exhaustion, exposure, and heart attacks.