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Title: HOUSEHOLDS, LAND AND LABOR: POPULATION DYNAMICS IN THE NORTHERN ORKNEY ISLAND, SCOTLAND, 1851 to 2003.

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2007

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Abstract: The North Orkney Population History Project was started to understand the determinants of population change in the northern half of the Orkney archipelago from the 18th to the 20th centuries. After four years of fieldwork much data on the population and landscape of Orkney have been collected. This thesis is the first detailed analysis of the demographic data collected by the project. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the determinants of family fertility and childhood mortality in the Northern Orkney Islands from the mid 19th to the late 20th centuries. I begin by providing a thorough description of the population of the Northern Orkney Islands from 1851 to 2001. I describe changes that have occurred in fertility, mortality and population composition during this time period. To analyze fertility I estimate the effects of individual, household and family characteristics on birth interval data generated from marriage and birth records collected from the Registrar General of Scotland’s vital registration system using Cox proportional hazards models. Results indicate that farm families tend to have longer birth intervals than nonfarm families and the presence of post-reproductive grandparents can also lengthen birth intervals. Building on the results from the fertility analysis I estimate the effects of individual and household level characteristics on infant and childhood mortality, again relying on the Cox model for all analyses. Results indicate a decreased risk of death for children living in farm families relative to nonfarm families and that higher order and twin births face a substantial increase in risk of death relative to lower order and singleton births. Based on the data for Northern Orkney, I suggest that the farm household by solidifying its economic interests and managing its household production system has out competed nonfarm families and led to the mass emigration of many of these families from the Northern Isles over the past century.

Url: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/7969

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Authors: Sparks, Corey Shepard

Institution: Penn State

Department: Anthropology

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Housing and Segregation

Countries: United States