Changes in Composition of Population and Health Indicators by Prefectures in Japan

Abstract

Relations between population changes and health indicators were analyzed from 1920 to 1970 on every census. In this paper, population changes were shown by two indices; percentage of workers engaged in primary industries and ratio of aged population 65 and overr to adults aged 15-64 . Though each prefecture has been in its own course of population change, there has been clearly recognized a tendency toward uniform population change after World War II. Among seven health indicators discussed here, crude death rate, mean expectation of life and proportional mortality indicator (P . M. I.) which have been assumed to be comprehensive health indicators have a state relationship to population changes after World War II. This indicates that age structure of population may definitely regulate the pattern of death rates but f ut further considerations are necessary about factors affecting changes of patteren of death rates from Meiji era with special reference to prefectural differences of industrialization.