Mortality rate

“ Death rate: This entry gives the average annual number of deaths during a year per 1,000 population at midyear; also known as crude death rate. The death rate, while only a rough indicator of the mortality situation in a country, accurately indicates the current mortality impact on population growth. This indicator is significantly affected by the age distribution, and most countries will eventually show a rise in the rate, in spite of continued declines in mortality at all ages, as declining fertility results in an aging population. ”

“ Widespread application of research and clinical advances stemming from this effort is having substantial and salutary effects on cardiovascular disease mortality rates, which have declined by 34 percent since 1950. These mortality-rate decreases extend across the whole spectrum of cardiovascular diseases and, in most categories, have accelerated during recent years. ”

“ During the most recent 5-year period for which data are available (1989–1993) , age-adjusted mortality rates for white women fell almost 6 percent. Although mortality rates among African American women are still increasing, the rate of increase has slowed to 1 percent, compared to 16 percent during the 1980's. ”

“ This is no longer theory, but can be demonstrated by official mortality statistics. The death rate has declined more rapidly in cities than in rural communities because the cities have given more adequate support to public health organization. ”

“ To ascertain whether a nation is long-lived, we must correct the crude death-rate by taking into account the average age of the population. When this correction has been made, a low death-rate, and the low birth-rate which necessarily accompanies it, is a sign that the doctors are doing their duty by keeping their patients alive. If our physicians desire more maternity cases, they must make more work for the undertaker. Large families almost always mean a high infant mortality; and it is significant that a twelfth child has a very much poorer chance of survival than a first or second. ”

“ As the epidemic progressed the mortality-rate increased from day to day, until it reached the point of 5,000 deaths per day, and on several occasions ran up to as high as 10,000 deaths in the twenty four hours. ”

“ When one reads the account of the condition of the densely crowded districts on the south side of the High Street, one is not surprised that the rate of mortality was 40 and over per thousand. That you now enjoy one of the lowest death rates in Europe—15.3 per thousand for last year—is due to the thoroughness with which measures of recognized efficiency have been carried out. ”

“ There is no reason to doubt that instead of every second man perishing miserably within a few weeks, the rate of mortality might have been as low as that exhibited in the South American Report, viz., one death annually by disease out of 150 men. ”

“ For while we have been lengthening the average term of life and reducing the death rate in general, we have been shocked to find that the mortality above forty-five has been increasing rather than decreasing, so that men are being taken off just at the prime of life and at the height of their usefulness more than ever before, in spite of all our hygiene and the development of sanitary science. ”

“ The only country in which the fall in the birth rate has not produced a fall in the death rate, and which is not therefore over-populated. The infantile mortality is the lowest in the world, and the death rate less than 10 per 1,000, which gives us an ideal which we can reach in all countries by lowering the birth rate sufficiently. ”

“ The death-rate then gradually rises, slowly till 25, more rapidly later, when, from about 45 onward deterioration asserts itself more pronouncedly, and by three score years and ten the rate begins to exceed that of childhood. Thus, all other considerations being set aside, mortality tends to vary inversely with the proportion of the population at the healthy period 5 to 25. As the replenishment of this group depends upon the conditions prevailing at the earlier ages, it is to the mortality in childhood that most weight, from the standpoint of hygiene, must be attached. ”

“ A detailed consideration of our sickness and mortality during the last year suggests to me a few other remarks, which may, I think, be of practical utility to your Hon. Court.
First, as regards the ages at which death occurs; the respective proportions of timely and untimely deaths may, generally speaking, be inferred from the local death-rates. In general terms, we know a high death-rate indicates that many die before their time—indicates that a proportion of the population, more or less considerable, instead of reaching old age, becomes prematurely blighted and extinguished. ”

“ First, by a high birth rate much in excess of the death rate. This is usually the rule in communities in a low state of culture, among agricultural classes, and also among the poorer and laboring classes in European and American industrial centers. The death rate, especially the infant mortality, is very high, but this is compensated by early marriages, and a substantial prolificacy. On the whole, the average duration of life is, in such communities, comparatively short; the population is being renewed at frequent intervals. ”

“ The outstanding fact which strikes one at once from this table is the high order of the correlation which exists between the explosiveness of the outbreak of epidemic mortality in these communities and the normal death rate from certain causes of death in the same communities. ”

“ Many think this means a gain in national vitality. This may be true for the younger age but the “gain has served to mask a loss of vitality at the older age periods. This latter phenomenon, a rising mortality in elderly life, is something almost peculiar to the United States.” In other lands this fall in death rate has been due not solely to the reduction of mortality in infancy and adult life, for most countries have improved their mortality at every age period. ”

“ In one favorable instance, that of between 600 and 700 persons of the working class in the metropolis, during a period of three years, the average rate of mortality has been reduced to between 13 and 14 in 1000. In another instance, for a shorter period, among 500 persons, the mortality has been reduced as low as even 7 in 1000. ”

“ Incidentally, it may be remarked that the total increase of mortality after forty-five in man is only about six per cent; besides which, the race need not worry much about what happens to the individual after fifty-five or sixty, provided he has done his share of the world's work. But {303} women pass men three laps to the mile, for their increase of death rate after the age of fifty-five is barely one per cent, or one sixth of man's. ”

“ From ten to fifteen, the average mortality is lower than at any other period. From fifteen to twenty the number of deaths increases again, especially among women. At this period, the influence of dangerous occupations begins to be seen in the death-rate. ”

“ Nor is there in Great Britain, as in this country, any evidence of a rising mortality among those in middle life and later who are chiefly affected by these degenerative maladies. The same may be said of Germany, where the death rate at every age period has steadily fallen during the past thirty years, notwithstanding a tremendous industrial progress. ”

“ It will be noticed that in 1849 the increase over the previous year was about 42,000, while in the following year, 1850, there was a falling off to 30,000 below the number of deaths in 1848. For the period of five years from 1848 to 1852 the annual average of 400,000 remained undisturbed. This would indicate that, when through a powerful influence an excessive death-rate prevails, a large proportion of the weak and sickly is carried off, so that by way of compensation the surviving, healthier population will for a time show a mortality below the average. ”

“ Even if the mortality table correctly represents in the long run the rate of mortality among the lives we are dealing with, we know that the rate of mortality will, from accidental circumstances, be some times greater and sometimes less than that indicated by the table. If, for example, we have 734 persons under observation all of the age 30, we have no certainty that at the end of 10 years exactly 77 will have died, leaving 657 alive. It is, indeed, within the range of possibility firstly, that the whole 734 persons may die before the age 40 ”

“ Court will not doubt that the standard to be adopted for your estimate of healthiness ought to be the lowest known death-rate; that every avoidable death represents an evil to society; and that, if a mortality of 12, or 13, or 14 per thousand per annum can be reached for one mixed population, there is ample room for discontent among any other population, which finds itself doomed to perish at double the rate of the first. ”

“ From a table showing the ratio per thousand of mortality in the United States Army as compared with the mortality of males between twenty and forty years of age in civil life, it appears that the death-rate from disease among the soldiers is from twice to three times as great per thousand as among civilians. ”

“ The opinion is commonly held that a high birth-rate is a direct cause of a high death-rate, owing to the great mortality amongst infants. The table on page 340 shows that the death-rate at ages under five is three times as high as at all ages together, and it is therefore natural to suppose that a high birth-rate by producing an excessive proportion of persons of tender years will cause a high general death-rate. ”

“ While man's mortality, after falling off markedly up to forty-five years, begins after that period to increase distinctly, woman's death rate, on the other hand, continues to decrease until fifty-five years of age, beating man ten years ”

“ This maybe safely assumed as the rate of mortality in all New England. That of the Southern States is somewhat greater.
These rates of sickness and death—one and a half or one and ninety-two hundredths per cent, constantly sick, and seventy-seven to one hundred and eleven dying, in each year, among ten thousand living—may be considered as the proportion of males, of the army-ages, that should be constantly taken away from active labor and business by illness, and that should be annually lost by death. ”

“ In 1900 or thereabouts, the death rates at the middle ages of life were heavier in the United States than in Prussia, France, Italy, and Sweden. Since then the death rates in the United States at these ages have grown even greater.
In the foreign countries the death rate by persons can be approximated by adding the rates for males and females of same age and dividing by two. ”

“ The rates, to be sure, vary considerably with the different nationalities; but taken as a group, the foreign born apparently show a lower resistance to the degenerative processes which these diseases imply. Is it to be wondered at, therefore, that the death rates for large cities and states in the registration area show increases in mortality at the higher age groups? In view of the marked changes that have occurred in the composition and characteristics of our population, it would indeed be surprising if these changes in mortality had not occurred. ”

“ Since 1896 an uncommon mild type of the disease has prevailed very extensively, but the death rate has been exceedingly low, being for the eleven years, 1897-1907, slightly less than one death for each 100,000 inhabitants. ”

“ But this makes it all the more remarkable that notwithstanding the multitudinous circumstances which have tended to increase disease, the death-rate has been lowered to an amount already indicated, and life has been prolonged to an extent which has secured an increase in its average expectation of 10 or 11 years within the last thirty years. ”

“ Death-Rate old age, cancer, casualties, etc., 17 will die annually, and no more. And this number is the maximum that will die without the occurrence of some disease due to a removable cause. Taking this standard as the absolute necessary death-rate, we can readily estimate the number of unnecessary or preventable deaths which occur in any community. ”

“ To-day there are, each twenty-four hours, 200 death beds in the city of New York. If the death rate of twenty years ago had been maintained, there would be 130 more. A forty per cent. decrease in the death rate has already resulted from the advances of sanitary science. Yet there is still upon us a great burden of preventable disease and death. ”

“ The fact that in the United States the general death rate has steadily fallen for the past several decades, a phenomenon common to all civilized countries, is accepted by many as evidence of a steady gain in National Vitality. ”