[Report 1880] / Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham.

  • Birmingham (England). Council.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1880] / Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Medical Officer of Health’s Department, The Council House, Birmingham, March 15th, 1881. TO THE HEALTH COMMITTEE. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit to you*my Report for the year 1880, and have the satisfaction of beiug able to congratulate you and the town on the continued improvement in the Health of the Borough, as shown in both the diminished total Death-rate and the smaller prevalence of all the Zymotic diseases except Diarrhcea. Eor the year 1879 it was my agreeable duty to report a lower Death-rate than had been known in the Borough during the preceding fourteen years ; I have now to announce a still further decline in the mortality, which marks the year 1880 as the most favourable one in the sanitary history of the Borough during the last sixteen years, the period over which only any such statistics are at command. L VITAL STATISTICS. The Population of the Borough at the middle of 1880, as estimated by the Registrar General upon the basis of the 1871 Census, was 394,738. The excess of Hirths over Deaths shows what is called a natural increase in the population during the year 1880, of 7,023, so that had the number of persons leaving the town been equal to that of persons coming into it during the year, the annual rate of increase of population for the year would have been 1‘8 per cent. The estimated increase is only 5,854, equal to L5 per cent. This large population is distributed more or less unequally over an Area of 8,400 acres, the number of persons per acre thus being 47'0, as compared with 42’4 in 1873, the hrst year of my Reports, when the death-rate was much higher. It has been clearly established that increased density of population is accompanied b}^ increased sickness and mortality, that is to say, when the surrounding conditions remain the same ; but since 1873, in spite of an addition to the population of 4'6 persons to each acre, the health of the Borough has, in opposition to the usual result, been improved, and there can be no doubt that the reversal of this natural law is due to the changes for the better which have been effected in the sanitary conditions of the town. The statement below contains an estimate of the population at the middle of 1880, the number of persons to an acre, and the total death-rate in some of the large towns of the Kingdom in the year under notice. Estimated Population, No. of Persons per Death-rate. London ... 1880. .S,664,149 Acre. 48-6 22-2 Liverpool... 544,056 104-4 27-3 Birmingham 394,738 470 20-5 Manchester 363,130 84-6 25-4 Sheffield . . 304,938 15-5 21-1 Leeds 318,929 14-8 21-0 Salford ... 185,786 35-9 25-9 Newcastle-on-Tyne 149,366 27-8 22-0 Norwich ... 85,827 11-5 24-7 Glasgow ... 589,598 97-7 22-6 Dublin 314,666 31-3 36-1 In speaking of the number of persons per acre in a large community it must not be forgotten that such number is only an average, and does not repre- sent the persons living on each individual acre; for instance, the number of