Mortality Differentials by Religious Denomination in Vienna 1981-2002

Abstract

Using statistical record linkage of anonymized population census data 1981, 1991 and2001 with deaths during twelve months from census day, we computed standardizedmortality ratios for nine religious groups (including groups with no religion and religionnot stated) in the city of Vienna. Relative mortality risk is above average for RomanCatholics (1.01), but below average for Protestants (0.98) and people with no religion(0.97). Very low mortality risks are found for Muslims and Orthodox Christians, which ispartly due to the low mortality of foreign immigrants. The lower mortality risk ofProtestants compared to Roman Catholics is restricted to males and essentially due todifferent educational distributions. Despite their low overall mortality level, people with noreligion face excess suicide mortality.