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Infant mortality in the Nordic countries, 1780–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

SÖREN EDVINSSON ,
ÓLÖF GARÐARSDÓTTIR  and
GUNNAR THORVALDSEN
SÖREN EDVINSSON
Affiliation:
The Demographic Database, Umeå University.
ÓLÖF GARÐARSDÓTTIR
Affiliation:
Population Statistics, Statistics Iceland, Reykjavík.
GUNNAR THORVALDSEN
Affiliation:
Norwegian Historical Data Centre, University of Tromsø.
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Abstract

This article summarizes aspects of the decline in infant mortality in the five Nordic countries. During the nineteenth century, both the levels of infant mortality and its development differed among the Nordic countries. At an early date, Denmark, Norway and Sweden stood out as the countries with the lowest levels in Europe whereas levels of infant mortality in Iceland and Finland were comparatively high. Within the countries there were large regional differences that often crossed national borders. Artificial feeding characterized most of the areas with the highest infant mortality. Within the different countries the high infant mortality came to be seen as a problem during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The spread of information, midwives as agents of change and high literacy are factors that have been proven important in explaining the subsequent decline.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , December 2008 , pp. 457 - 485
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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References

ENDNOTES

1 The Åland Islands are included in the Finnish data. The Faroe Islands and Greenland are kept separate from Danish statistics, and are not included here.

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7 Age at first marriage:

a Includes the remarried.

Sources: Denmark: Statistisk Aarbog, Statistics Denmark, 7de Aargang (Copenhagen, 1902), http://www.dst.dk/upload/aarbog1902.pdf, Table XII, 15; Iceland: Guðmundur Jónsson and Magnús S. Magnússon eds., Hagskinna, Icelandic Historical Statistics (Reykjavik, 1997), Table 2.23, 156; Norway: Historisk statistikk 1994 (Oslo, 1994), Table 3.27, 92; Finland: Anneli Miettinen, ‘Population Data on Finland 1900–2004’, Yearbook of Population Research in Finland 41 (Åbo, 2005), 194, http://www.vaestoliitto.fi/mp/db/file_library/x/IMG/75240/file/YB05_117–198.pdf; Sweden: Statistics Sweden, Befolkningsutvecklingen under 250 år: Demografiska rapporter, 1999:2 (Stockholm, 1999), Table 4.4, 100.

a Includes the remarried.

Sources: Denmark: Statistisk Aarbog, Statistics Denmark, 7de Aargang (Copenhagen, 1902), http://www.dst.dk/upload/aarbog1902.pdf, Table XII, 15; Iceland: Guðmundur Jónsson and Magnús S. Magnússon eds., Hagskinna, Icelandic Historical Statistics (Reykjavik, 1997), Table 2.23, 156; Norway: Historisk statistikk 1994 (Oslo, 1994), Table 3.27, 92; Finland: Anneli Miettinen, ‘Population Data on Finland 1900–2004’, Yearbook of Population Research in Finland 41 (Åbo, 2005), 194, http://www.vaestoliitto.fi/mp/db/file_library/x/IMG/75240/file/YB05_117–198.pdf; Sweden: Statistics Sweden, Befolkningsutvecklingen under 250 år: Demografiska rapporter, 1999:2 (Stockholm, 1999), Table 4.4, 100.

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17 The provinces (sometimes called counties) are sub-national administrative entities called län in Sweden and Finland, sýslur in Iceland and amt or fylker in Denmark and Norway. A region is a more loosely defined area made up of contiguous parishes. (Note that Iceland is placed too far east on the map.)

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21 Because of different projections and coordinate systems, many entities and numerous changes over time, local-level maps are not as easy to combine across national borders as the province-level map. The Norwegian municipality maps are available online in Thorvaldsen, ‘Rural infant mortality in nineteenth century Norway’ at http://www.ep.liu.se/ej/hygiea. The Danish municipality maps can be found in Løkke, Døden i barndommen, Figures 2.9–2.15; for Swedish maps of parishes, see Brändström, Anders, Edvinsson, Sören and Rogers, John, ‘Illegitimacy, infant feeding practises and infant survival in Sweden 1750–1950: a regional analysis’, Hygiea Internationalis 3:1 (2002), 13–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Icelandic maps are in Garðarsdóttir, Saving the child, 82–91.

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55 Page 2 (our translation).

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