Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial modelling of rural infant mortality and occupation in nineteenth-century Britain
AU - Atkinson, Paul David
AU - Francis, Brian Joseph
AU - Gregory, Ian Norman
AU - Porter, Catherine
PY - 2017/4/26
Y1 - 2017/4/26
N2 - BACKGROUNDInfant mortality in nineteenth-century rural places has been largely neglected: to study it offers new insight into rural demography.OBJECTIVEThis study examines infant mortality, and census occupations, between 1851 and 1911 across all the rural Registration Districts (RDs) of England and Wales.METHODSThe decadal 1850s-1900s RD-level demographic data in the GB Historical GIS (GBHGIS) is analysed using latent trajectory analysis to identify clusters of RDs whose infant mortality rate (IMR) trajectories were most similar: these are mapped in ArcGIS. The recently published Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) resource is then used to study relationships between IMR and Census reported occupation. Geographically Weighted Regression is employed to explore spatial variation in the coefficient with which occupation affected IMR.RESULTSThe study describes a previously unreported pattern of mortality variation, identifying seven groups of RDs with distinctive trajectories of infant mortality. A spatially varying link between IMR and female occupation rates in agriculture is noted.CONCLUSIONSSpatial variation in rural social structures had demographic consequences: the decline in female agricultural occupation may have removed a source of harm to infant lives in the arable economy of the south and east, but simultaneously a source of benefit in the upland, pastoral north and west.CONTRIBUTIONFindings about the costs and benefits of female agricultural employment can help explain the different trajectories of infant mortality in different regions, suggesting that female occupation and the details of what work women did could be a strong influence, positive or negative, on infant mortality.
AB - BACKGROUNDInfant mortality in nineteenth-century rural places has been largely neglected: to study it offers new insight into rural demography.OBJECTIVEThis study examines infant mortality, and census occupations, between 1851 and 1911 across all the rural Registration Districts (RDs) of England and Wales.METHODSThe decadal 1850s-1900s RD-level demographic data in the GB Historical GIS (GBHGIS) is analysed using latent trajectory analysis to identify clusters of RDs whose infant mortality rate (IMR) trajectories were most similar: these are mapped in ArcGIS. The recently published Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) resource is then used to study relationships between IMR and Census reported occupation. Geographically Weighted Regression is employed to explore spatial variation in the coefficient with which occupation affected IMR.RESULTSThe study describes a previously unreported pattern of mortality variation, identifying seven groups of RDs with distinctive trajectories of infant mortality. A spatially varying link between IMR and female occupation rates in agriculture is noted.CONCLUSIONSSpatial variation in rural social structures had demographic consequences: the decline in female agricultural occupation may have removed a source of harm to infant lives in the arable economy of the south and east, but simultaneously a source of benefit in the upland, pastoral north and west.CONTRIBUTIONFindings about the costs and benefits of female agricultural employment can help explain the different trajectories of infant mortality in different regions, suggesting that female occupation and the details of what work women did could be a strong influence, positive or negative, on infant mortality.
KW - infant mortality
KW - rural history
KW - female occupation
KW - agriculture
KW - England and Wales
KW - nineteenth century
KW - demographic history
KW - gender
KW - family
M3 - Journal article
VL - 36
SP - 1337
EP - 1360
JO - Demographic Research
JF - Demographic Research
SN - 1435-9871
M1 - 44
ER -