Let’s take all the historical estimates of child mortality and combine them with global data for recent decades to see what this tells us about humanity’s history. The mortality of children over the long-run 5 At the end of this article you can find more detail about the available evidence for the mortality rates of children in hunter-gatherer societies. The 17 different societies include paleolithic and modern-day hunter-gatherers and the mortality rate was high in all of them. Researchers also collected data about hunter-gatherer societies. 4Īnd the same is also true in very different regions and different periods. Based on the skeletons found in Mallorca researchers again found that about half of all children did not survive. 3Ī burial site on the Spanish island of Mallorca offers us a view on child mortality in Europe during the Iron Age. The records suggest a similar figure: almost half of children died before the end of puberty. We can look at research for other places and time periods.īased on skeletons found in the South of modern-day Peru, paleodemographers can estimate the mortality of children who were born two millennia ago. Was this unusual? Was the death rate in Europe particularly high at that specific time? At that time the average couple would have more than 5, 6, or even 7 children, which meant that most parents saw several of their children die. 1ĭuring the same period about half of all children died in Bavaria (Germany), and in France the mortality rate was about 45%. Looking at the statistical records for the first three decades – the period from 1750 to 1780 – we find that 40% of children died before the age of 15. It was the first country to establish an office for population statistics: the Tabellverket, founded in 1749. Sweden is a country that has particularly good historical, demographic data. But how common? How do we know? And what can we learn from our history?Īrcheologists and historians have brought together data from many places and time periods across the world which lets us piece together a picture of our past. We all know that child deaths were more common in the past. A child dying is one of the most dreadful tragedies one can imagine.
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