Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part I - Docent Arvid Edin, Uppsala, The Swedish Church Registers and the Demographical Science
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who have entered the parish, and those who have removed from it (either inland
or from or to foreign countries), likewise divided according to sex, which last
information, in any case as regards the inland removals and as completely as in
Sweden, can only be obtained in one or two other countries. As the vital stati*
stics and the population statistics are built upon precisely the same material, and
with the use of the same clearly understood conception of the population, »the
legally registered population», it is much easier with the Swedish than with the
foreign method, »the de facto (actual) population», to obtain real local geographic*
al coefficients, for example, of the births, deaths, and marriages in the larger towns,
in contrast to those of the country*side surrounding them. If the sick from the
country in large and increasing numbers are taken into the hospitals in the towns,
the towns will clearly, if one reckons with the de facto population, feel the bur*
den of a mortality that is to a certain extent artificial, especially noticeable pro*
bably in the case of certain ages during youth. If the women from the country
in increasing numbers are confined in the maternity hospitals, the frequency of
birth is raised thereby; if more and more of the country brides are married in the
towns the frequency of marriage rises higher to a corresponding degree, at the
cost of the country*side, as long as one reckons with the de facto population and
not, as in Sweden, with the legal. It is only in regard to certain diseases, such
especially as tuberculosis, which are comparatively slow in causing death, that the
Swedish demographical method does not perhaps give an entirely correct expres*
sion of the local geographical influences. Such diseases to a certain degree work
in the direction of causing removals (and that not only by chance either). Young*
er unmarried persons of country extraction, who have sought work in towns
often move back again to their own district after they have been attacked by
such illnesses, and die there; this probably is more especially so in the case of
women, who usually do not make such long migrations as men do. In such cases
it is difficult to know which »environment» ought justly to be charged with the
death. It is not impossible that persons of weak constitution, in whom is found
a disposition towards tuberculosis may not be already disposed, more than others
on account of this, to prefer work in the towns rather than in the country. An
addition to the returns respecting deaths in the form of information on removals
which have taken place during, for example, the last three years, would be very
desirable for throwing light on this important question. On the whole the stati*
stics over removals seem to be — for reasons easy to understand — the most neg*
leeted area of demography. Doubtless the Swedish parish registers (and removal
registers) have much to offer that is new and of great interest for investigators,
among other things in the area of the statistics of feeundity. In exceptional cases,
for instance with regard to accidents occurring during casual visits to the town,
it may happen that the Swedish method affords even a less satisfactory result than
the usual one. It may be observed, however, that deaths, births, and marriages
are noted in the district where they occur even if they are not reckoned there.
For the whole country the Swedish method allows a particularly reliable esti*
mation of the population’s division according to sex, civil status, and age, in the
last respect into groups of one year, as the foundation for birth, death, and mar*
riage coefficients specified in a corresponding degree.
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