What was the infant mortality rate in Manchester in 1842?

• A. 57%
• B. 33%
• C. 25%
• D. 60%

Answer: (D)

In industrial Manchester during 1842, infant mortality was extraordinarily high because babies paid the heaviest price for overcrowded, dirty, and poorly managed urban life. The figure pointed to in this question reflects the extreme conditions of the time: a very large share of babies born in the city did not survive to their first birthday. Poor housing with crowded rooms, contaminated water supplies, inadequate sewage systems, and widespread disease meant that infants faced continual danger from diarrhoea, infections, and outbreaks of illness with little medical treatment available. This stark statistic is often used to illustrate why reformers argued so strongly for public health measures, such as better water and sewer systems, cleaner housing, and eventually the wider public health legislation of the mid- to late-19th century. The other figures would indicate lower mortality, which does not align with the level of urban hardship Manchester faced in that era, especially in a year marked by severe living conditions for the poorest families.