La mortalità nei Länder dell’Impero Austriaco, 1828-1865

Mortality in the Länder of the Austrian Empire, 1828-1865 Published by the Austrian Empire from 1829 to 1871, the Tafeln zur Statistik der Österreichischen Monarchie are an important source that contains demographic data in addition to administrative and economic information. Estimates about population were supplied by military or civil authorities, while data on marriages, births and deaths came from parish registers. Based on these data, mortality in each of the 15 Länder (regions) of the Austrian Empire is examined under different viewpoints. First, the simple death yearly series sheds light on the epidemic-driven crises in the different regions. Moreover, we can estimate general mortality and infant mortality rates in each Land from 1828 to 1865. The resulting levels are very high, yet plausible, for the observed period. Since in the timeframe 1851-1859 we find data about deaths by sex and individual year of age, under certain conditions it is also possible to build Life Tables using the generalised Halley method. The check of these conditions shows that results are considered very good or good for nine regions, but not satisfactory for the other six regions, probably also due to bad data quality. Considering only the Life Tables with a satisfactory evaluation, life expectation at birth is, on average, about 31 years for men and 34 for women, about 7.5 years lower than other European countries in the same period.