Full Citation

Title: Infant mortality among US whites in the 19th century: New evidence from childhood sex ratios

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2025

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2025.52.10

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Basic facts of infant mortality in the 19th-century United States are largely unknown due to a lack of data on births and infant deaths. Contradictory views have emerged from previous research. Estimates from life table exercises with US census data, published in the most recent (2006) Historical Statistics of the United States, suggest that infant mortality among US whites circa 1850–1880 was substantially worse than in much of contemporary Europe. However, a broader range of historical evidence indicates that US whites were among the healthiest 19th-century populations. We offer a new basis for estimating infant mortality: childhood sex ratios. Because of the female survival advantage in infancy, high rates of infant death tend to be reflected in female-skewed childhood sex ratios. We verify the empirical relationship between infant mortality and childhood sex ratios in historical populations with credible data on both and demonstrate that sex ratios can reveal broad patterns of infant mortality

Url: https://www.demographic-research.org/articles/volume/52/10

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Authors: McDevitt-Irwin, Jesse; Irwin, James

Periodical (Full): Demographic Research

Issue: 10

Volume: 52

Pages: 303-350

Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data

Topics: Fertility and Mortality, Race and Ethnicity

Countries: