The Places of Death: A Multilevel Analysis of 13,247 Couples in Dublin during the Demographic Transition

PWP-CCPR-2015-011

Abstract

In many cities in the early twentieth century, one in five children still died before their fifth birthday. There is much we do not know about how these high death rates were reduced. This article investigates the mortality experiences of 13,247 families in Dublin City in the 1900s using a novel approach that incorporates geographic information systems, spatially-derived predictors and multilevel modelling (MLM). I find evidence of spatial correlations in mortality and a place-based migrant health advantage. After mapping over a thousand streets, mortality appears to have been highly uneven across urban space. Over 75 percent of this variation can be explained by the migrant share of streets. I also document large disparities in mortality between Jews and Christians, between higher and lower classes, and lower mortality among Catholics with Jewish neighbors. Jewish mothers were three to four times less likely to lose a child than Christian mothers. Detailed spatial data can rule out that living in more advantaged neighborhoods was a primary determinant of this advantage.