Abstract
Previous analysis has shown that life tables may be distinguished by two orthogonal pieces of information, the level of mortality in the population and the relative shape of the mortality curve. We show that both the regions of England and Wales in 1911, and locality types (county boroughs, other urban, and rural) differ in the shape of their mortality curves. Using data for the administrative counties, we examine the underlying correlates of this differentiation, paying particular attention to the socio-economic structure of the counties as reflected in their wealth, opportunity levels, and degree of urbanisation.
Résumé
Une analyse antérieure avait déjà montré que deux ensembles d'informations orthogonaux entre eux distinguaient bien les tables de mortalité: le niveau de la mortalité dans la population et la forme relative de la courbe de mortalité. Nous montrons ici que, tant les régions d'Angleterre et du pays de Galles que les catégories de comtés, rurales et urbaines, different dans la forme de leur courbe de mortalité. A l'aide de données portant sur les comtés administratifs, nous examinons les variables cachées qui expliquent cette différenciation, en portant une attention particulière sur la structure socioéconomique des comtés, qui apparaît au travers de leur niveau de santé, leur structure professionnelle et leur degré d'urbanisation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anson, J., 1985. The parameters of death: a proposed parameterisation of the mortality curve. Doctoral dissertation, Brown University, Providence, RI.
Anson, J., 1988a. The parameters of death: a consideration of the quantity of information in a life table using a polynomial representation of the survivorship curve. Statistics in Medicine, 7: 895–912.
Anson, J., 1988b. ROBREG: an APL procedure for fitting robust regression lines using Huber's M-estimate. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 20: 579–582.
Anson J., 1991. Model mortality patterns: a parametric evaluation. Population Studies, 45: 137–153.
Anson, J., 1992. The second dimension: a proposed measure of the rectangularity of mortality curves. Genus, 48: 1–17.
Antonovsky, A., 1967. Social class, life expectancy and overall mortality. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 45: 31–73.
Brass, W., 1971. On the scale of mortality. In: Brass, W., ed. Biological Aspects of Mortality. Taylor and Francis, London: 69–110.
Carrier, N. and Hobcraft, J., 1971. Demographic Estimation for Developing Societies. Population Investigation Committee, London.
Crafts, N.F.R., 1984. A cross-sectional study of legitimate fertility in England and Wales, 1911. Research in Economic History, 9: 89–107.
Coale, A.J. and Demeny, P., 1966. Regional Model life Tables. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.; 2nd edition 1983, Academic, New York.
Fox A.J., Goldblatt, P.O. and Jones, D.R., 1985. Social class mortality differentials: artefact, selection or life circumstances? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 39: 1–8.
Friedlander, D., Schellehem, J., Ben Moshe, E. and Keysar, A., 1985. Socio-economic characteristics and life expectancies in nineteenth century England: a district analysis. Population Studies, 39: 137–151.
Fries, J.F., 1983. The compression of morbidity. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 61: 397–419.
Galtung, J., 1971. A structural theory of imperialism. Journal of Peace Research, 8: 81–117.
Goldman, N. and Lord, G., 1986. A new look at entropy and the life table. Demography, 23: 275–282.
Goldstein, J.S., 1986. Basic human needs: the plateau curve. World Development, 13: 595–609.
Gregory, J.W. and Piché, V., 1983. Inequality and mortality: demographic hypotheses regarding advanced and peripheral capitalism. International Journal of Health Services, 13: 89–105.
Guttman, L., 1968. A general non metric technique for finding the smallest coordinate space for a configuration of points. Psychometrica, 33: 469–506.
Hakkert, R., 1987. Life table transformations and inequality measures: some noteworthy formal relationships. Demography, 24: 615–622.
Hechter, M, 1975. Internal Colonialism: the Celtic fringe in British national development, 1536–1966. Routeledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Heligman, L. and Pollard, J.H., 1980. The age pattern of mortality. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 107: 49–80.
HMSO, 1915. Census of England and Wales 1911, Summary Tables. HMSO, London, Cmnd 7929.
Huber, P., 1981. Robust Statistics. Wiley, New York.
Keyfitz, N. 1977. Introduction to the Mathematics of Population, revised ed. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
Keyfitz, N., 1983. Choice of function for mortality analysis: effective forecasting depends on a minimum parameter representation. Theoretical Population Biology, 21: 329–352.
Kuznets, S., 1979. Growth, Population and Income Distribution. Norton, New York.
Langton, J. and Morris, R.J., 1986. Atlas of Industrializing Britain, 1780–1914. Methuen, London.
Mitra, S., 1978. A short note on Taeuber's paradox. Demography, 15: 621–623.
Myers G.C. and Manton, K.G., 1984. Compression of mortality: myth or reality? Gerontologist, 24: 346–353.
Omran, A.R., 1971. The epidemiologic transition: a theory of the epidemiology of population change. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 49: 509–538.
Perks, W., 1932. On some experiments in the graduation of mortality statistics. Quoted in: B. Benjamin and J.H. Pollard, 1980. The Analysis of Mortality and Other Actuarial Statistics. Heinemann, London.
Petrioli, L., 1981. A New Set of Models of Mortality. Università Degli Studi di Siena, Italy.
Petrioli, L., 1982. Nouvelles tables-types de mortalité: application et population stable. Facolta di Scienze e Bancarie, Università di Siena, Italy.
Preston, S.H., Keyfitz, N. and Schoen, R., 1972. Causes of Death: Life Tables for National Populations. Seminar, New York.
Registrar General, 1920. Supplement to the 75th Annual Report of the Registrar General of Births Deaths and Marriages in England and Wales, Part II: Abridged Life Tables. British Parliamentary Sessional Papers, 10: 53–165.
Rogers, G.B., 1979. Income and inequality as determinants of mortality: an international cross section analysis. Population Studies, 33: 343–351.
Siler, W., 1983. Parameters of mortality in human populations with widely varying life spans. Statistics in Medicine, 2: 373–380.
Thiele, P.N. 1872. On a mathematical formula to express the rate of mortality throughout the whole of life. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 16: 313. Quoted in: Benjamin, B., and Pollard, J.H., 1980. The Analysis of Mortality and Other Actuarial Statistics. Heinemann, London.
Todaro, M.P., 1977. Economic Development in the Third World. Longman, London.
Townsend, P., Davidson, M. and Whitehead, M., 1988. Inequalities in Health. Penguin, London.
Tukey, J.W., 1977. Exploratory Data Analysis. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
United Nations, 1982. Model Life Tables for Developing Countries, Population Studies No. 77. United Nations, New York.
Vaupel, J.W., 1986. How change in age-specific mortality affects life expectancy. Population Studies, 40: 147–157.
Wilkinson, R.G., 1989. Class mortality differentials, income distribution and trends in poverty 1921–1981. Journal of Social Policy, 18: 307–335.
Woods, R., 1985. The effects of population redistribution on the level of mortality in nineteenth-century England and Wales. Journal of Economic History, 45: 645–651.
Woods, R. and Hinde, P.R.A., 1987. Mortality in Victorian England: models and patterns. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 18: 27–54.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Anson, J. The shape of mortality curves: an analysis of counties in England and Wales, 1911. Eur J Population 9, 33–54 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01267900
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01267900