IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v50y2024i14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Religious affiliation and child mortality in Ireland: A country-wide analysis based on the 1911 Census

Author

Listed:
  • Lucia Pozzi

    (Università degli Studi di Sassari (UniSS))

  • Liam Kennedy

    (Queen's University, Belfast)

  • Michail Raftakis

    (Università di Bologna (UNIBO))

  • Francesco Scalone

    (Università di Bologna (UNIBO))

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have identified a link between religious affiliation and child mortality, yet the underlying factors that contributed to this association are not fully understood. Objective: This study investigates how religious affiliation impacted child mortality in early 20th century Ireland, controlling for socioeconomic status, literacy, and place of residence at both the individual and contextual level. Methods: We utilize the 1911 IPUMS Irish census, indirect techniques, and regression analysis to examine the role of religious affiliation in child mortality. We therefore perform various OLS regressions, controlling for demographic factors and socioeconomic conditions at both the individual and contextual level, as well as for the three major religious groups. Results: Our results indicate striking differences in child mortality rates among the three major religious denominations in Ireland in the early 20th century. Catholics recorded the highest child mortality rates, followed by Church of Ireland families, while Presbyterians experienced the best child mortality outcomes. These differences are explained in part by the varying socioeconomic characteristics of each religious group, but religious affiliation is also shown to have mattered. For reasons that are not altogether clear, Jewish communities had lower child mortality rates than the major religious denominations. Conclusions: Our study highlights the complex interplay between religious affiliation, socioeconomic factors, and child mortality in Ireland in the early 1900s. Our findings reveal a significant association between religious affiliation and child mortality, which persists even after controlling for certain individual socioeconomic characteristics and contextual factors. Contribution: By utilising the 1911 Irish census data and indirect estimation techniques, the study provides a new perspective on child mortality and its relationship with diverse religious affiliations.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucia Pozzi & Liam Kennedy & Michail Raftakis & Francesco Scalone, 2024. "Religious affiliation and child mortality in Ireland: A country-wide analysis based on the 1911 Census," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 50(14), pages 393-410.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:50:y:2024:i:14
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2024.50.14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol50/14/50-14.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2024.50.14?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2008. "Economic status, religion, and demography in an Ulster town a century ago," Working Papers 200802, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    2. Dylan Shane Connor, 2017. "Poverty, Religious Differences, and Child Mortality in the Early Twentieth Century: The Case of Dublin," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(3), pages 625-646, May.
    3. Connor, Dylan, 2021. "In the name of the father? Fertility, religion and child naming in the demographic transition," SocArXiv jndqu, Center for Open Science.
    4. Samuel H. Preston & Michael R. Haines, 1991. "Fatal Years: Child Mortality in Late Nineteenth-Century America," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number pres91-1, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pozzi, Lucia & Scalone, Francesco & Raftakis, Michail & Kennedy, Liam, 2024. "Religious affiliation and child mortality in Ireland: A country-wide analysis based on the 1911 census," QUCEH Working Paper Series 24-03, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    2. Barnes, Geoffrey & Guinnane, Timothy W., 2010. "Social Class and the Fertility Transition: A Critical Comment on the Statistical Results Reported in Simon Szreter's Fertility, Class and Gender in Great Britain, 1860-1940," Working Papers 87, Yale University, Department of Economics.
    3. Stefania Albanesi & Claudia Olivetti, 2014. "Maternal health and the baby boom," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 5, pages 225-269, July.
    4. Zainab Iftikhar & Amanat Ali, 2012. "Impact Of Income Inequality And Defence Burden On Economic Growth," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 57(03), pages 1-15.
    5. Karen Clay & Werner Troesken & Michael Haines, 2014. "Lead and Mortality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(3), pages 458-470, July.
    6. James J. Feigenbaum & Christopher Muller & Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, 2019. "Regional and Racial Inequality in Infectious Disease Mortality in U.S. Cities, 1900–1948," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1371-1388, August.
    7. Joseph Molitoris & Martin Dribe, 2016. "Industrialization and inequality revisited: mortality differentials and vulnerability to economic stress in Stockholm, 1878–1926," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 20(2), pages 176-197.
    8. Seema Jayachandran & Adriana Lleras-Muney & Kimberly V. Smith, 2009. "Modern Medicine and the 20th Century Decline in Mortality: Evidence on the Impact of Sulfa Drugs," NBER Working Papers 15089, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Olivetti, Claudia & Paserman, M. Daniele & Salisbury, Laura, 2018. "Three-generation mobility in the United States, 1850–1940: The role of maternal and paternal grandparents," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 73-90.
    10. Bengtsson, Tommy & Broström, Göran, 2009. "Do conditions in early life affect old-age mortality directly and indirectly? Evidence from 19th-century rural Sweden," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1583-1590, May.
    11. Sunder, Marco, 2013. "The height gap in 19th-century America: Net-nutritional advantage of the elite increased at the onset of modern economic growth," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 245-258.
    12. Salisbury, Laura, 2014. "Selective migration, wages, and occupational mobility in nineteenth century America," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 40-63.
    13. Jamison, Eliot A. & Jamison, Dean T. & Hanushek, Eric A., 2007. "The effects of education quality on income growth and mortality decline," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 771-788, December.
    14. Irene Barbiera & Gianpiero Dalla‐Zuanna, 2009. "Population Dynamics in Italy in the Middle Ages: New Insights from Archaeological Findings," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 35(2), pages 367-389, June.
    15. Peter Lindert, 2003. "Why The Welfare State Looks Like a Free Lunch," Working Papers 59, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    16. Ryan Masters & Robert Hummer & Daniel Powers & Audrey Beck & Shih-Fan Lin & Brian Finch, 2014. "Long-Term Trends in Adult Mortality for U.S. Blacks and Whites: An Examination of Period- and Cohort-Based Changes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(6), pages 2047-2073, December.
    17. Fernihough, Alan & Ó Gráda, Cormac & Walsh, Brendan M., 2015. "Intermarriage in a divided society: Ireland a century ago," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-14.
    18. Zimran, Ariell, 2022. "US immigrants’ secondary migration and geographic assimilation during the Age of Mass Migration," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    19. David N. Weil, 2015. "A Review of Angus Deaton's The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(1), pages 102-114, March.
    20. Ljungberg, Jonas, 2013. "A Scientific Revolution that Made Life Longer. Schooling and the Decline of Infant Mortality in Europe," Lund Papers in Economic History 127, Lund University, Department of Economic History.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    religious affiliation; child mortality; socioeconomic status; literacy; indirect estimation methods; Ireland; place of residence; OLS regressions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:50:y:2024:i:14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.