Abstract
The exceptionally detailed Finnish materials are used to examine age- and sex-specific mortality in different regions during the country's last famine, the Great Famine of the 1860s. This is compared with another mortality crisis, the 1808–09 War. The results show that in cases when multiple infectious diseases were responsible for elevated mortality, the increases for different age categories were, by and large, proportional to the levels prevailing during normal times. However, excess mortality showed more variability for children. Furthermore, age- and sex-specific social behaviour (specifically large-scale temporary migration) during the crisis period shaped the age patterns and sex differentials in mortality.
Résumé
Nous utilisons ici les données finlandaises exceptionnellement détaillées, pour analyser la mortalité différentielle par âge et par sexe dans différents regions durant la dernière famine que connut ce pays: la grande famine des années 1860. Celle-ci est comparée avec une autre crise de mortalité: la guerre de 1808–1809. Les résultats montrent que dans le cas où de nombreuses maladies transmissibles sont responsables d'une mortalité élevée, les accroissements correspondant aux divers groupes d'âge sont largement proportionnels aux niveaux existants en temps normal. Cependant, les accroissements de mortalité montrent une plus forte variabilité pour les enfants. En outre, les conduites sociales dépendant de l'âge et du sexe (plus précisément les migrations temporaires à longue distance) pendant la période de crise, ont façonné les différentiels correspondants de mortalité.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abel, W., 1974. Massenarmut und Hungerkrisen im vorindustriellen Europa: Versuchen einer Synopsis. Verlag Paul Parey, Hamburg und Berlin.
Bonsdorff, B. von, 1975. The History of Medicine in Finland, 1828–1918. Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Helsinki.
Boyle, P.P., Ó Gráda, C., 1986. Fertility trends, excess mortality, and the Great Irish Famine. Demography 23, 543–562.
Danielsson, J.R., 1896. Suomen sota ja sotilaat vuosina 1808 ja 1809. Weilin & Göös, Helsinki.
Dupâquier, J., 1989. Demographic crises and subsistence crises in France, 1650–1725. In: Walter, J. and Schofield, R., eds. Famine, Disease and the Social Order in Early Modern Society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 189–199.
Flinn, M.W., 1980. Demography, epidemics, ecology. In: XVe Congrès international des sciences historiques, Bucarest, 10–17 août 1980, Rapports I, Grands thèmes et méthodologie. Editura Academiei Socialiste România: 587–616.
Gutmann, M.P., 1980. War and rural life in the early modern Low Countries. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Holsti, H., 1877. Om Typhus recurrens och särlskildt dess senaste epidemi i Helsingfors. Finska Läkaresällskapets Handlingar 19, 135–204.
Häkkinen, A., Ikonen, V., Pitkänen, K., and Soikkanen, H., 1991. Kun halla nälän tuskan toi. Miten suomalaiset kokivat 1860-luvun nälkävuodet. WSOY, Helsinki.
Lindén, K.E., 1908. Sjukvård och läkare under kriget 1808–1809. Svenska Litteratursällskapets i Finalnd skrifter 85, Helsingfors.
Livi-Bacci, M., 1991. Population and Nutrition: An Essay on European Demographic History. Cambridge University Press, New York.
Lunn, P.G. 1989. Nutrition, immunité et infection, Annales de Démographie Historique. Société de Démographie Historique — E.H.E.S.S., Paris: 111–124.
Mielke, J.H. and Pitkänen, K.J., 1989. War Demography: The Impact of the 1808–09 War on the Civilian Population of Åland, Finland. European Journal of Population 5, 373–398.
Muroma, S., 1991. Surrten kuolovuosien (1696–1697) väestönmenetys Suomessa, Finnish Historical Society, Helsinki.
Osmonsalo, E.K., 1947. Suomen valloitus 1808. WSOY, Porvoo-Helsinki.
Palmberg, A., 1869. Statistiska data rörande tyfusepidemin i Wiborg från den 1 december 1867 till den 10 september 1868. Notisblad, 168–175.
Pitkänen, K., 1977. The reliability of the registration of births and deaths in Finland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: some examples. Scandinavian Economic History Review 25, 138–159.
Pitkänen, K., 1979. Finlands folkmängd år 1749. Historisk Tidskrift för Finland 64, 22–40.
Pitkänen, K., 1980a. Registering people in a changing society — the case of Finland. Yearbook of Population Research in Finland 18, 60–79.
Pitkänen, K., 1980b. Väestörakenteen muuttuminen ja väestönkehitys. In: Jutikkala, E., Kaukiainen, Y. and Åström, S.-E., eds. Suomen Taloushistoria, I. Tammi, Helsinki: 367–385.
Pitkänen, K.J., 1992a. The road to survival or death? Temporary migration during the Great Finnish Famine in the 1860s. In: Häkkinen, A., ed. Just a Sack of Potatoes?: Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present. Societas Historica Finlandiae, Helsinki: 87–118.
Pitkänen, K., 1992b. The patterns of mortality during the Great Finnish Famine in the 1860s. Acta Demographica 1992. Physica-Verlag Heidelberg: 81–102.
Pitkänen K. and Nieminen, M., 1984. The history of population registration and demographic data collection in Finland. In: National Population Bibliography of Finland 1945–1978. IUSSP & Finnish Demographic Society, Helsinki: 11–22.
Post, J.D., 1985. Food Shortage, Climatic Variability, and Epidemic Disease in Preindustrial Europe. The Mortality Peak in the early 1740s. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Post, J.D., 1990. Nutritional status and mortality in eighteenth-century Europe. In: Newman, L.F., Crossgrove, W., Kate, R.W., Matthews, R. and Millman, S., eds. Hunger in History: Food Shortage, Poverty, and Deprivation. Basil Blackwell, Oxford: 241–280.
Samuelsson, G., 1944. Lantvärnet 1808–09. Uppsala.
Snyder, J.C., 1965. Typhus fever Rickettsiae. In: Horsfall, F.L. Jr. and Tam, I., eds. Viral and Rickettsial Infections of Man, 4th edition. J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia — Toronto: 1059–1094.
Strömmer, A., 1969. Väestöllinen muuntuminen Suomessa. Analyyttinen kuvaus syntyvyyden, kuolevuuden ja luonnollisen kasvun tähänastisesta kehityksestä ja alueellisesta vaihtelusta, Väestöpoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen julkaisuja, Series A:13. Population Research Institute, Helsinki.
Tommila, P., 1962. La Finlande dans la politique Européenne en 1809–1815. Finnish Historical Society, Helsinki.
Turpeinen, O., 1986. Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet 1866–1868. Finnish Historical Society, Helsinki.
Turpeinen, O., 1991. Näläntorjunta ja hyvinvointivaltion perusteet: Hallinto ja kansalaiset Suomessa 1808–1905. VAPK-kustannus, Helsinki.
Walter, J. and Schofield, R. 1989. Famine, disease and crisis mortality in early modern society. In: Walter J. and Schofield, R., eds. Famine, Disease and the Social Order in Early Modern Society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1–73.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pitkänen, K.J., Mielke, J.H. Age and sex differentials in mortality during two nineteenth century population crises. Eur J Population 9, 1–32 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01267899
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01267899