Cohort mortality in Sweden (pdf)

Cohort mortality in Sweden Mortality trendsdevelopment 1860 to 19704. Mortality trendsdevelopment1860 to 1970Information on demographic occurrences is usually produced forone calendar year at a time. In addition, analysis of developmentover time is normally connected with comparisons of calendaryears. The presentation of mortality trendsdevelopment in thischapter and the following chapter will follow this template. The aimis to get athe general overviewteacher of mortalitytrendsdevelopment based on period data prior to the presentation ofmortality trendsdevelopment for cohorts that follows in Chapter 6.The downturn in mortality of children and young people is due tothe decrease of infectious diseases. This downturn actually began atthe end of the 18th century. One factor behind this development isthe increasing awareness of the importance of hygiene. Anotherexplanation is that the most infectious diseases changed characterand became less deadly than before (Hofsten 1986, page 39). Yetanother factor that could have had a restraining effect on the spreadof infectious diseases is the pattern of settlement. During thebeginning of 19th century, the previously dense settlements invillages became more spread out in the countryside. Still at themiddle of the 19th century, only 10 percent of the population livedin cities.By the middle of the 18th century, infant mortality was very highand one in five children died before the age of one. Infant mortalityremained high at the beginning of the 19th century, but had begunto drop more and more rapidly . Around 1965, infant mortality hadfallen so much that only 15 of 1000 boys and 12 of 1000 girls haddied before the age of one. Figure 4 .1 illustrates that mortalitydropped not only for infants but for children and young people aswell. The mortality information refers to an average of 10-yearperiods, and thus the annual variations in mortality are hidden.However, the more long-term trend of mortality is apparent. Thedownturn in mortality began around 1770. After a period ofdeclining mortality, the trend suddenly turned upwards in themiddle of the 19th century. The break in the downturn iscommented by Sundbärg as follows: ”…. ButStatistics Sweden 23