Regional differentials in finnish mortality rates 1816-1865

Scandinavian Economic History Review

Volumn 21, Issue 2, 1973, Pages 145-163

  Turpeinen, Oiva ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI   (Finland)

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EID: 79251483040     PISSN: 03585522     EISSN: 17502837     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03585522.1973.10407768     Document Type: Article

References (11)

1. Because of gaps in the source material the Greek-Orthodox congregations with a population of about 26,000 in 1830 were omitted from the calculations. Consequently a blank space appears on the maps to the east of the deaneries of Sortavala (No. 27 on map 1) and Ala-Karjala (No. 32 on map 1).
2. The essential role of migrant beggars was emphasised by Gustaf Utterstrom: “When increased numbers of beggars were wandering the roads-especially when times were so acute that entire families left their homes-the risk of infection must have been increased.” ‘Population Problems in Pre-industrial Sweden’, Scandinavian Economic History Review, ii (1954), p. 137.
3. The role of epidemics has been stressed by Professor Jutikkala: ‘Even in a climatically marginal country and during a climatically unfavourable period, epidemics which were not directly connected with variations in the food supply played a major part.’, E. Jutikkala and M. Kauppinen, ‘The Structure of Mortality during Catastrophic Years in a Pre-industrial Society’, Population Studies Vol. XXV, N. 2, 1971, p. 285. The low mortality rate in Finland’s outlying districts in the pre-industrial era has also been observed by the Finnish demographer Dr. Aarno Strömmer (Väestöllinen muuntuminen Suomessa, Tomio, 1969, pp. 34-35). Of the infectious diseases tuberculosis has been studied in Finland: Wold. Backman and Severi Savonen, Keuhkotaudin kulku Suomessa vuosina 1771-1929, (Helsinki, 1934); see especially the appendix maps.
4. A. G. Rasin, Naseleni je Rossii za 100-let, (Moskva, 1956), pp. 187-189, referring to N. Flekovski, Položenije rabotševo klassa v Rossii, (Moskva, 1938)-first edition, 1869, p. 461, tends to link the high mortality rate in industrial area with economic factors such as paucity of livestock, insufficient farming land, heavy factory work, etc. Data are available for 1867-1881 on infant mortality in 49 administrative districts of European Russia. The maximum and minimum infant mortality rates are recorded for roughly the same administrative district as the general mortality in 1861-1865. The 10 major infant mortality districts were (numbers refer to map 5): 31-Perm (438), 24-Moscow (406), 25-Nižegorod (398), 55- Vladimir (388), 54-Vjatka (383), 10-Jaroslavl (349), 15-Kostroma (349), 33-St. Petersburg (345), 3-Olonetz (344), and 46-Tver (340). And the 10 smallest were: 51-Vilna (125), 11-Jekaterinoslav (152), 22-Minsk (153), 16-Kovno (125), 5-the Don region (160), 42-Tauria (160), 53-Vitebsk (160), 19-Courland (166), 6-Grodno (168), and 34-Podolia (169). The mean of all 49 administrative districts was 270, Rasin,, pp. 195-196. Infant mortality and its causes were discussed in the literature before the 1917 Revolution. see, for instance, D. A. Sokolov i V.I. Grebenštšikov, Smertnost v Rossii i borba s nej, (St. Petersburg, 1901), p. 3 and S. A. Glebovski i V.I. Grebenštšikov, ‘Detskaja smertnost v Rossiin’, Obstšeštvennoje i tšasnoje prizrenije v Rossii, (St. Petersburg, 1907), pp. 271-274. Rašin concurs with their views that the high infant mortality rate in densely populated industrialised areas was caused by economic factors, first and foremost by inadequate nutrition (Rasin, pp. 200-201). (Industry refers here to the pre-industrial manufacturing industry which was abundant in rural districts but maintained lively contacts with towns).
5. Sanktpeterburg, Izsledovanija istorii, topografii i statistike stolitsy, (St. Petersburg, 1868), pp. 28-29. The great majority of the people moving from Finland to St. Petersburg came from the counties of Viipuri (Viborg) and Uusimaa (Nyland). In 1841-1845, for instance, 3,826 persons moved to St. Petersburg, about 45 per cent of them from the county of Viipuri and about 21 per cent from Uusimaa. The number of migrants from St. Petersburg to Finland in the same five year period was 1,181; about 40 per cent of them moved to the county of Viipuri and some 30 per cent to that of Uusimaa (see Antti Rosenberg, Muuttoliike Uudenmaan läänissä esi-industrialistisen kauden lopulla, (Helsinki, 1966), p. 264). Connections between St. Petersburg and south and south-east Finland were especially close in the sphere of trade and peasant navigation (see e. g. Yrjö Kaukiainen, Suomen talonpoikaispurjehdus 1800-luvun alkupuoliskolla, (Helsinki, 1970), pp. 144-146, and Kauko E. Joustela, Suomen Venäjän-kauppa autonomian ajan alkupuoliskolla vv. 1809-1865, (Helsinki, 1963), pp. 113-114, 279, 283-286). Russian pedlars in Finland, who probably totalled about 1,000 in the middle of the 1850s, are known to have spread veneral diseases (Joustela, p. 117). Presumably they spread other diseases too. The Russian military units stationed in south-east Finland naturally kept in close touch with their native country and its capital.
6. Sanktpeterburg, Izsledovanija …, pp. 206-207.
7. Underdånig Berättelse till Kongl. Majet, angående Nativiteten och Mortaliteten m. m. i Sverige Åren 1836 med 1849, (Stockholm, 1844), (Map 6).
8. Gustaf Sundbärg, ‘Befolknings-statistiska tabeller öfver Sveriges län’, Statistisk Tidskrift, (Stockholm, 1876), p. 104.
9. Fr. Th. Berg, ‘Om dödligheten i första lefnadsåret’, Statistisk Tidskrijt, (Stockholm, 1869), p. 440.
10. J. Hellstenius ‘Barndödligheten i Vestenorrland och Jemtlands län’, Statistisk Tidskrift, (Stockholm, 1884), pp. 156-161, Tables 1-4, appendix map. It is noteworthy from the point of view of the history of ideas that Hellstenius refers to racial factors in his explanation, see Hellstenius, pp. 167-168.
11. Gustaf Sundbärg, ‘Dödligheten af Lungtuberkulos i Sverige åren 1751/1830’, Statistisk Tidskrift, (Stockholm, 1905), p. 179.