Living the Transition — The Great Mortality Change Through the Lives of the Country Doctors

This paper works alongside other studies claiming the need for further elaboration of the theory of the demographic transition. A number of perspectives on the transition, some of them related to gender, democracy, education, and labour has, according to Tim Dyson, been insufficiently researched by social scientists. The most recently introduced material from the Demographic Database, forms from the Statistical Committee, have been used to chart the demographic transition in the northern-most counties in Sweden during the years between 1800–1850. The hypothesis being that even in these pre-urban and pre-industrialized societies, opportunities to connect with other parts of Sweden could be congruent to a faster progress through the demographic transition. This would lead to lower crude death rates and infant mortality in the coastal parishes. This was true to a certain extent, but this methodologically tentative study also affirms previous research on infant mortality and the need for smallpox vaccination and midwives.