Age-specific mortality data by decade for Registration Districts in England and Wales

Table ID:

MORT_AGE_EW_REG_DEC     (1251689)

Contents:

Age-specific mortality data by decade for Registration Districts in England and Wales

Approx. number of rows:

3,780

Table type:

Raw Data

Documentation Author:

Humphrey Southall

Geography:

Reporting units are identified by:
   Registration County
   Registration District
   Registration District Number
   Suffix to Registration District Number

Chronology:

The data cover the period 1851 to 1910.
Dates and times are identified by:
   Decade

Sources:

1. The contents of this table is largely derived from the full transcription of the district-level tabulations in the Registrar-General's Decennial Supplements, from the 1850s to the 1900s, held in our table cause_ew_reg_dec. That table is based mainly on work by the late Professor Robert Woods of Liverpool University, but with very extensive checking and correction by the GBHGIS team; which included adding several completely missing district tabulations, and a completely new transcription for the 1900s.
2. An earlier version of this table, held as mort_age_reg, was based on quite independent transcriptions from the Decennial Supplements by the GBHGIS and other collaborators. The Supplements for the 1850s and 1860s did not include counts of births, so those data come from these sources, rather than work by the Liverpool project:
   • 1850s: RG's 23rd Annual Report for 1860, pp.200-17.
   • 1860s: RG's 33rd Annual Report for 1870, pp.240-57.
   These tables in general provide precisely the figures required, but in a few cases the Registration Districts used were not identical to those in the Decennial Supplement. These special cases were treated with some care, drawing on additional data from the Annual Reports including the total number of births listed for the component sub-Districts. Details of these adjustments can be found in the spreadsheets used for data entry.

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Notes:

1. This table is more conveniently arranged than cause_ew_reg_dec for analyses not involving particular causes of death, such as computation of life tables, as it contains just one row of data per district per decade; and these rows always include counts of births. However, there are still problems in that it covers ten year periods within which there were significant changes to the set of districts. In general, the aim here is to include the districts which existed at the end of each decennial period, which should roughly correspond to the geography of the following census (so the districts for the 1850s should roughly match those covered by the 1861 census). However, further work is needed both to ensure that this is true and, if possible, to add in the counts for districts which were abolished before the end of each decade.
2. The creation and abolition of districts is especially an issue for the 1870s. Rather than attempting to reallocate deaths in districts that had been abolished or substantially changed, the 1871-80 Decennial Supplement usually provided multiple tables each covering part of the period. For example, if an RD was subdivided in 1875, there would be one table covering the RD as a whole for 1871-5, and two others each covering 1875-80. Where an RD was abolished during the period, it would be listed but without a number. These districts listed for shorter periods are all included in cause_ew_reg_dec, but this derived table only includes rows for districts which were still in existence on 31st December 1879. One other peculiarity for the 1870s report is that it includes a separate tabulation for Salisbury, Wilyshire, which the report itself notes was in fact a sub-District within Alderbury District. These two areas have been merged into one in this table.
3. The Decennial Supplement for the 1870s did not tabulate age-specific mortality separately for men and for women. The figures for the 1870s in this table are therefore estimates, computed as follows: For most Districts, we take the non-sex specific data for the decade from 'cause_ew_reg_dec' and, for each age group, estimate the proportions of men and of women in the district as the average of the proportions for the same RD in the 1860s and the 1880s. Where this method fails, because the district was not in continuous existence over all three decades, the gender division for an age group within an RD is estimated by using the gender division for the relevant county, computed in the same way.
4. While census reports consistently use regular five-year age bands, these mortality data generally provide more detail for younger ages, and there is some variation between decades:
   • Only the 1851-60 data have a category for persons aged 75 to 84, all other decades having a single category for 75 upwards. That column holds computed values for 1851-60.
   • All decades pre-1901 include counts for the single years 0 to 5, but the 1900s data list only 0 (under 1), 1 and then 2-4 as a single grouping. The total for 2-4 has been computed for all other decades.
   • The figures cover a period of ten calendar years, and therefore the total number of births and deaths will differ slightly from those in the 'pop_chan' table which precisely covers inter-censal periods.

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Checking:

1. This is mainly a derived table, based on cause_ew_reg_dec, which has been very extensively checked.
2. The only other data are the birth counts for the 1850s and 1860s, which were checked on data entry to ensure that the numbers of male and female births equalled total births.
3. All data are systematically matched to the AUO.

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Acknowledgments:

We are extremely grateful to the following:

1. David Allan Gatley: The birth counts in this table for 1851-60 were all supplied by David Gatley.
2. Robert Woods: The values in this table for 1861-70 were mostly extracted from the complete transcription of the individual RD tables in the 1861-70 Decennial Supplement created by Robert Woods, supplied to the database via the Essex Data Archive. Data for districts 284-323 and 605-623 was missing and was therefore independently input at QMW.

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Indices:

Index	Type	Column(s) indexed
mort_age_ew_reg_dec_pkey	Primary key	decade, reg_dist_unit
mort_age_ew_reg_dec_idx	Unique	reg_dist, reg_cnty, decade

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Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

Constraint	Type	Details
mort_age_ew_reg_dec_pkey	Primary Key	See details above for primary key index

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Columns within table:

Column	Type	Contents
decade	Integer number.	Inter-censal period, for example 1901-11='1900'.
reg_num	Integer number.	Number identifying each RD, and placing it in order.
reg_sfx	Text string (max.len.=8).	Suffix to ID number, allowing IDs such as '431A'.
reg_dist	Text string (max.len.=44).	Name of Registration District to which data relate.
reg_cnty	Text string (max.len.=24).	Name of Registration County in which the district was located.
reg_dist_unit	Integer number.	ID number of the Registration District, as defined in the AUO.
reg_cnty_unit	Integer number.	ID number of the Registration County, as defined in the AUO.
births	Integer number.	Total number of births.
deaths	Integer number.	Total number of deaths.
m_births	Integer number.	Total number of male births.
m_deaths	Integer number.	Total number of male deaths.
m_0	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged under 1.
m_1	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 1 and under 2.
m_2	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 2 and under 3.
m_3	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 3 and under 4.
m_4	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 4 and under 5.
m_2_4	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 2 and under 5 (1901-10 only).
m_0_4	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 0 to 4.
m_5_9	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 5 to 9.
m_10_14	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 10 to 14.
m_15_19	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 15 to 19.
m_20_24	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 20 to 24.
m_25_34	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 25 to 34.
m_35_44	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 35 to 44.
m_45_54	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 45 to 54.
m_55_64	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 55 to 64.
m_65_74	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 65 to 74.
m_75_up	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 75 and upwards.
m_75_84	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 75 to 84. (1851-60 only)
m_85_up	Integer number.	Deaths of males aged 85 and upwards (1851-60 only).
f_births	Integer number.	Total number of female births.
f_deaths	Integer number.	Total number of female deaths.
f_0	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged under 1.
f_1	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 1 and under 2.
f_2	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 2 and under 3.
f_3	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 3 and under 4.
f_4	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 4 and under 5.
f_2_4	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 2 and under 5 (1901-10 only).
f_0_4	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 0 to 4.
f_5_9	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 5 to 9.
f_10_14	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 10 to 14.
f_15_19	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 15 to 19.
f_20_24	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 20 to 24.
f_25_34	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 25 to 34.
f_35_44	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 35 to 44.
f_45_54	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 45 to 54.
f_55_64	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 55 to 64.
f_65_74	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 65 to 74.
f_75_up	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 75 and upwards.
f_75_84	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 75 to 84. (1851-60 only)
f_85_up	Integer number.	Deaths of females aged 85 and upwards (1851-60 only).
notes	Text string (max.len.=304).	Comments transcribed from source.
rec_num	Integer number.	Unique number identifying row in table.