Demographic changes in european industrializing towns

Abstract

Large databases assembled for industrializing European cities now permit crosscultural comparisons of populations that underwent demographic changes as a result of the industrialization process in the nineteenth century. The article draws into a comparative framework communities in France, Sweden, and Belgium, and compares their population development during early industrialization when population growth was rapid (paroxysmal). Special attention is paid to household structure, infant, and child mortality, and differential behaviors of “immigrant” and “native” populations. Finally, the article offers a general model population change during early industrialization as a comparative framework for future research.

Acknowledgements

France Meslé and Jacques Vallin reconstructed French mortality tables for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We are grateful for their having let us had access to them.

Notes

1 The research discussed in this article is based on the main data banks for Sundsvall in Sweden; Verviers, Seraing, and the industrial sites in the Liège area of Belgium; and Le Creusot in France.