[Report 1895] / Medical Officer of Health, Portsmouth Borough.

  • Portsmouth (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1895] / Medical Officer of Health, Portsmouth Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    104/112 (page 96)
    This table again shows a striking similarity between the figures relating to England and Wales in 1881-90, and those of Portsmouth during the same time, there not being one year difference in any of the life periods either male or female. Whilst the expectations of life of males are slightly more in Portsmouth than in the entire country, the expectations of life of the females in Portsmouth are rather less than those of the country as a whole. It also exhibits the serious loss of life in a manufacturing town, taking Manchester as an example, during maturity, the most valuable part of existence, the expectation of life for males in Manchester of the ages 25 to 45 being two years less than in Portsmouth, and of the ages 45 to 65 being almost three years less. From a general survey of all the tables of this appendix it will be seen that the figures relating to Portsmouth are very similar to those relating to England and Wales as a whole, and that the expectation of life is greater in Portsmouth than in the large manufacturing towns mentioned. The figures relating to England and Wales are obtained from the whole country, healthy and unhealthy, a large proportion of the population living in large manufacturing towns, and an ever diminishing number living in healthy rural districts ; so that whilst it is satisfactory to know that the conditions in which the inhabitants of Portsmouth live are as favourable as those in which the population of England and Wales find themselves, yet there is no doubt but that the sanitary condition of Ports¬ mouth has improved and is improving, making it certain that the next life table, when it is made, will give more favourable figures than the present.