'Public Health in 1948: remarkable statistics' report

The Public health in 1948: remarkable statistics: the first months of the National Health Service report was published by the Ministry of Health, examining health and mortality outcomes between the inception of the NHS on 5 July 1948 and March 1949.

The mortality rates of 1948 were compared with those of 1938 (the last full year of peace before the outbreak of the Second World War and the year which had the lowest pre-war death rates of any year before the war).

The report found that there had been a significant reduction in death rates. It suggested that mortality rates had fallen by 20%.