BACKGROUND The aim of the present study was to investigate participation and performance trends regarding the nationality of successful solo swimmers in the 'English Channel Swim'. METHODS The nationality and swim times for all swimmers who successfully crossed the 33.8-km 'English Channel' from 1875 to 2013 were analysed. RESULTS Between 1875 and 2013, the number of successful female (571,...

The death rate from pulmonary tuberculosis, "consumption" or "phthisis", at this time was lower in New Zealand than in Britain, at 8 per 10,000 population compared to 13 per 10,000 in Britain.3 While the death rate in New Zealand as in Britain was declining, around the turn of the century there were still more deaths from phthisis in New Zealand than from any other cause.4 The control of the di...

This paper shows the extent and nature of poverty in Britain at the beginning of the 21 century as measured by low-income thresholds (60% of the median household income), deprivation measures, subjective poverty measures and combined low income and deprivation poverty thresholds. Section One outlines some key trends in social and demographic change in Britain, and the potential implications of ...

BACKGROUND Men who have sex with men (MSM) remain the group most at risk of acquiring HIV infection in Britain. HIV prevalence appears to vary widely between MSM from different ethnic minority groups in this country for reasons that are not fully understood. The aim of the MESH project was to examine in detail the sexual health of ethnic minority MSM living in Britain. METHODS/DESIGN The main...

Late nineteenth century intergenerational occupational mobility was higher in the US than in Britain. Differences between them in this type of mobility are absent today. Using data on 10,000 US and British father and son pairs followed over two intervals (the 1860s and 1870s, and the 1880s and 1890s), we examine how this convergence occurred. The US remained more mobile then Britain through 190...

Anti-Catholicism in mid-Victorian Britain has had numerous historians, but none have posited a theory of religious prejudice to help explain it. This article argues that anti-Catholicism in midVictorian Britain can be interpreted as an example of prejudice rather than as a problem of differences over competing theologies on true religion. It suggests ways in which behavioral theory can help exp...

Almost 90 per cent of people in Britain live in urban areas and just over half the population are resident in 66 urban areas with populations of 100,000 or more. These and a wide range of key results from the 1991 Census have been published for all urban areas in Great Britain, updating information that was prepared for the first time after the 1981 Census. This article summarises the socio-dem...