Regional Inequalities in Infant Mortality in Britain, 1861-1971: Patterns and Hypotheses

In this paper long-run changes in infant mortality for 55 regions of Great Britain are examined. A diverse pattern of change, substantially different from the familiar aggregate trend of stability before 1900, followed by general decline, was revealed. In some regions, those with the lowest infant mortality rates, there was improvement from the 1860s, while elsewhere rates increased. Hence several measures of inequality indicated divergence between regional rates from the late nineteenth century to a peak inequality in 1921/31, followed by convergence towards equality. Econometric analysis of these variations in regional inequality suggests that density of housing occupancy, and industrialisation were important factors. Housing density was particularly important in the relatively slow decline in infant mortality in twentieth-century Scotland as compared to England and Wales.