Infectious diseases and regional differences in Finnish death rates, 1749-1773.

Abstract

Summary The paper deals with regional differences in Finnish death rates for the period 1749-1773 and the reasons for these differences. A sample was taken consisting of 51 rural parishes, eight urban parishes and three deaneries and representing 18.3 per cent of all deaths in Finland over the 25-year period. In cities the death rate in all age groups was higher than in rural districts. Infant mortality, stood at 290 in urban parishes but at 197 in rural ones; and the differences between the various rural parishes were larger still, ranging from 89 to 545. These differences were too large to be attributed to faulty registration. We have selected those urban and rural parishes for detailed analysis in which death rates were extremely high or extremely low. Mortality from infectious diseases (smallpox, measles, typhus, ‘burning fever’, pulmonary tuberculosis, whooping cough, dysentery, malaria) was noticeably higher in cities than in Finland as a whole. Among rural parishes it amounted to 135.4 per 10,000 p...