GB Historical DB

Annual Birth and Death statistics for Local Government Districts in England and Wales, 1911-73.

Table ID:
VITAL_EW_LGD_ANN     (1253383)
Contents:
Annual Birth and Death statistics for Local Government Districts in England and Wales, 1911-73.
Approx. number of rows:
100,741
Table type:
Raw Data
Documentation Author:
Humphrey Southall
Geography:
Reporting units are identified by:
   Administrative County
   Local Government District
   Local Government District Type
Chronology:
The data cover the period 1911 to 1973.
Dates and times are identified by:
   Year

Sources:

  1. 1911-20: The data are taken from the Registrar General's Annual Report. The precise title of the table changes over this period. For example, the 1911 table is titled 'Births, Deaths and Natural Increase in Administrative Areas, 1911' while in 1916 it is 'Populations, Births, and Civilian Deaths in Administrative Areas, 1916'.
  2. 1921-73: The data are taken from the Registrar General's Statistical Review of England and Wales, Tables. Part I. Medical for each year. Over this long period, the table changes its precise title. For example, for 1922 the source is 'Table 14. - Population, Births, Deaths, Infant Mortality, Natural Increase, 1922. - Counties, County Boroughs, Municipal Boroughs and Urban Districts, Rural Districts' and for 1961: 'Table 13. - Home population, births, deaths, infant mortality and perinatal mortality, 1961. England and Wales, standard regions, Wales, conurbations, counties, boroughs, urban and rural districts'.
  3. These data cover England and Wales only.

Notes:

  1. The data for the following years were computerised by the Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis: 1911-20, 1937-50, 1952-7, 1959-60, 1962-70. Data for the north of England in 1972-73 was input by Paula Aucott in spring 2001 and the rest of England and Wales in 1972-3 was input by Rachel Granville in Spring 2002 at Portsmouth. Remaining data were computerised at Queen Mary and Westfield College.
  2. There is some variation in the information held in each table. Those tables which have exactly the same fields and are consecutive are filed together. All field descriptions have the years they appeared in the reports noted next to them.
  3. The statistics given for districts which have indicated a change in their boundaries for 1972 and 1973 represent the events assigned to the area within the boundaries as they existed at the date of the event. The district populations given in the tables and used to calculate crude birth and death rates is a weighted average of the mid-year population of the area as constituted before and after the change.
  4. In 1971 the table specifically mentions that the comparability factors for 1970 were used as the 1971 data was not available. In 1972 provisional estimates from the preliminary 1971 census figures for the population were used.
  5. A few individual updates to rows to enable matching was required where the transcription was correct but failed to match. These are:
    • 'Burnham UD, Somersetshire'. Recorded as Burnham Urban District in the 1918 mortality table it was abolished in 1917 and replaced by Burnham on Sea UD. Therefore, the unit name in this row is amended during table loading in 1918.
    • 'Appleby UD, Westmorland' and 'Morpeth UD, Northumberland'. Both recorded as Urban Districts in the 1973 mortality table. However, prior to this they were both always listed as Muncipical Boroughs, and it is highly unlikely they were downgraded in 1973, the year before the complete Local Government Reorganisation. Therefore, these rows are amended during table loading to make them MBs in 1973.
    • 'Worksop UD, Nottinghamshire'. Recorded as Urban District in the 1932 mortality table. It became a Muncipical Borough in 1932 and is recorded as such from 1933 onwards, but there is no note with this entry, so the reason for the discrepancy is unclear. Therefore, this row is amended during table loading to make it an MB in 1932.
    • 'Bexley UD, Kent'. Recorded as Urban District in the 1936 mortality table. It became a Muncipical Borough in 1935 and is recorded as such from 1937 onwards, but there is no note with this entry, so it is unclear whether this discrepancy is date-related or is a printing error. Therefore, this row is amended during table loading to make it an MB in 1936.
    • 'Dagenham MB, Essex' and 'Chingford MB, Essex'. Recorded as Muncipical Boroughs in the 1937 mortality table. They became Muncipical Boroughs in 1938. Therefore, these rows are amended during table loading to make it a UD in 1937.
    • 'Barry MB, Glamorganshire'. Recorded as a Municipal Borough in the 1937-8 mortality table. It became a Municipal Borough in 1939. Therefore, these rows are amended during table loading to make it a UD in 1937-8.
    • 'Port Talbot UD, Brecknockshire'. Recorded as an Urban District in the 1921-3 mortality table. It was always a Municipal Borough, and in other years is listed as such it is unclear whether this discrepancy is date-related or is a printing error. Therefore these three rows are amended during table loading to make it an MB in 1921-3.
    • 'Inner and Middle Temple', London. These extra-parochial units are generally listed as a single entity, separate from the City of London and all Metropolitan Boroughs but without a type until 1950. In 1951-3 when they are combined with the City of London. These rows are assigned a 'MetB' type during table loading in order to match them to a statistical reporting unit in the gazetteer.
  6. A few rows list Local Government Districts but contain no statistics, these rows have been deleted from the final table. These rows are:
    • 'HAYLE MB, CORNWALL' AND 'LUDGVAN MB, CORNWALL' both abolished in 1934 but appearing in the 1934 listing.
    • 'THORNEY RD, CAMBRDIGESHIRE AND ISLE OF ELY' in 1965 because the local government district was transferred to Huntingdon and Peterborough Administrative County in 1965 but listed under both counties

Checking:

  1. For the 1928 data the following check-sums were calculated:
    1. The number of births and the total population was compared with the crude birth rate.
    2. The sum of male and female legitimate and illegitimate births were compared with the total births.
    3. The sum of male and female deaths was compared with the total deaths.
    4. The published infant mortality rate was compared with a rate calculated from the infant deaths and births columns.
  2. For the 1937-73 data the following check-sums were calculated: (i) The published death rate was compared with a death rate calculated from the total deaths and estimated population columns. (ii) The sum of all male and female births was compared with the reported total number of births. (iii) The sum of all male and female deaths was compared with the reported total number of deaths. (iv) The deaths under one year and births were compared with the infant death rate.
  3. For the 1937-39 and 1948-73 data the following check sum was calculated: (i) The death rate and comparability factors were compared with the ratio of deaths. Within the formula the death rate was divided by the national crude mortality rate, per thousand, for England and Wales. This did not work for 1951.
  4. For the 1937-39 and 1946-48 data the birth rate was checked by comparing the published crude birth rate against a birth rate calculated from the total number of births and estimated population.
  5. For the 1940-45 data the published war death rate was compared against the death rate calculated from the total number of deaths, the number of war dead and the estimated population.
  6. For the 1949-73 data the following check sums were calculated: (i) The number of deaths of infants under 4 weeks was compared to the total number of infant deaths to ensure it was not greater. (ii) The published birth comparability factor was compared with a calculation derived from the birth rate, comparability factor and birth ratio. This calculation does not work for 1952.
  7. For the 1958-1973 data the following check sums were calculated: (i) The published perinatal death rate was compared with a perinatal death rate calculated from the deaths under one week, still births, and total births columns. (ii) The number of deaths of infants under 4 weeks was compared to the number of infant deaths under 1 week to ensure the figure was not less than it.

Indices:

IndexTypeColumn(s) indexed
vital_ew_lgd_ann_pkey Primary key rec_num
vital_ew_lgd_ann_cnty_idx Unique adm_cnty, year, rec_num
vital_ew_lgd_ann_dist_idx Unique lg_dist, adm_cnty, lg_type, year, rec_num
vital_ew_lgd_ann_lg_dist_unit_idx Unique lg_dist_unit, rec_num

Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

ConstraintTypeDetails
vital_ew_lgd_ann_pkey Primary Key See details above for primary key index


Columns within table:

ColumnTypeContents
year Integer number. Calendar year to which data relate.
admc_name Text string (max.len.=38). The Administrative County containing the district, as originally transcribed.
adm_cnty Text string (max.len.=38). The Administrative County, as standardised for matching.
lgd_name Text string (max.len.=164). Name of local government district to which data relate, as listed in the original report. These currently contain substantial numbers of errors as corrections have been made to the standardised names.
lg_dist Text string (max.len.=164). Name of local government district, as cleaned and otherwise standardised for matching.
lg_type Text string (max.len.=14). Type of unit, i.e. County, Municipal or Metropolitan Borough, or Urban or Rural District.
part_of Text string (max.len.=5). A 'P' in this column indicates that data for only part of the place is recorded. It may be that another part is recorded in a different county.
adm_cnty_unit Integer number. ID of the county containing the district, as defined in the AUO.
lg_dist_unit Integer number. ID of the district to which the data relate, as defined in the AUO.
est_pop Integer number. Estimated population (1911-73).
civ_pop Integer number. Estimated civilian population. where not footnoted, set equal to est_pop (1916-19, 1921-36).
b_l_m Integer number. Legitimate Male Births (1911-57, 1963-73).
b_l_f Integer number. Legitimate Female Births (1911-57, 1963-73).
b_i_m Integer number. Illegitimate Male Births (1911-57, 1963-73).
b_i_f Integer number. Illegitimate Female Births (1911-57, 1963-73).
b_m Integer number. Total Male Births (1948, 1958-62, derived for all other years).
b_f Integer number. Total Female Births (1948, 1958-62, derived for all other years).
births Integer number. Total Births (1911-73).
b_rate Floating point number. Crude birth rate per 1,000 total population (1911-73).
com_facb Floating point number. Comparability factor. Calculated to allow comparisons of births between areas with the age and sex compositions of the areas standardised. The factor for the whole of England and Wales is 1.0. For full details see p. 31 of the RG's Stat. Review 1954 Vol. III. (1949-73).
b_ratio Floating point number. Ratio of local adjusted birth rate to national rate (1949-73).
d_m Integer number. Male deaths (1921-73).
d_f Integer number. Female deaths (1921-73).
deaths Integer number. Total Deaths (1911-73).
d_rate Floating point number. Crude death rate per 1,000 total population (1911-73).
d_w Integer number. Civilian War Deaths (1940-45).
d_rate_w Floating point number. Death Rate excluding Civilian War Deaths (1940-45).
comp_fac Floating point number. Comparability factor - Calculated to allow comparisons of deaths between areas with the age and sex compositions of the areas standardised. The factor for the whole of England and Wales is 1.0. For full details see p. 31 of the RG's Stat. Review 1954 Vol. III. (1911-14 when known as standardizing factor, 1934-39, 1948-73).
loc_rate Floating point number. Ratio of local adjusted death rate to the national rate (1911-14 when known as standardized death rate, 1934-39, 1948-73).
i_death Integer number. Deaths under 1 year (1911-73).
i_rate Integer number. Death rate among infants under 1 per 1,000 births, or from 1950s onwards per 1,000 LIVE births (1911-73).
d_u4w Integer number. Deaths under 4 weeks of age (1949-73).
d_u1w Integer number. Deaths under 1 week of age (1958-73).
still_b Integer number. Still births (1949-73).
peri Integer number. Perinatal mortality rate, i.e. the number of deaths under 1 week plus still births per 1,000 total live and still births (1958-73).
n_i_p Floating point number. Natural increase in population, per 1,000 (1911-14).
bound_ch Text string (max.len.=6). Whether boundary changed: A=abolished, B=boundary changed, C=created (1930-73).
notes Text string (max.len.=804). Notes either taken from the original table or added during digitisation.
rec_num Integer number. Unique number identifying row in table.