The infant mortality rate in the United States, for children under the age of one (twelve months), was 60 deaths per thousand births in 1935. Approximately six percent of children born in 1935 did not survive past their first birthday. Over the course of the next 85 years, this number has dropped significantly, and the rate has reached its lowest point ever in the period between 2015 and 2020, at six deaths per thousand births. Figures have been below ten since the 1990s.

This collection contains five modified data sets with mortality, population, and other demographic information for five American cities (Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City (Manhattan only), New York; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) from the early 19th century to the early 20th century. Mortality was represented by an annual crude death rate (deaths per 1000 population per year). The population was linearly interpolated from U.S. Census data and state census data (for Boston and New York City). All data sets include variables for year, total deaths, census populations, estimated annual linearly interpolated populations, and crude death rate. The Baltimore data set (DS0001) also provides birth and death rate variables based on race and slave status demographics, as well as a variable for stillbirths. The Philadelphia data set (DS0005) also includes variables for total births, total infant deaths, crude birth rate, and infant deaths per 1,000 live births.

The child mortality rate in the United States, for children under the age of five, was 462.9 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that for every thousand babies born in 1800, over 46 percent did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 220 years, this number has dropped drastically, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just seven deaths per thousand births. Although the child mortality rate has decreased greatly over this 220 year period, there were two occasions where it increased; in the 1870s, as a result of the fourth cholera pandemic, smallpox outbreaks, and yellow fever, and in the late 1910s, due to the Spanish Flu pandemic.

From the mid-19th century until today, life expectancy at birth in the United States has roughly doubled, from 39.4 years in 1850 to 79.6 years in 2025. It is estimated that life expectancy in the U.S. began its upward trajectory in the 1880s, largely driven by the decline in infant and child mortality through factors such as vaccination programs, antibiotics, and other healthcare advancements. Improved food security and access to clean water, as well as general increases in living standards (such as better housing, education, and increased safety) also contributed to a rise in life expectancy across all age brackets. There were notable dips in life expectancy; with an eight year drop during the American Civil War in the 1860s, a seven year drop during the Spanish Flu empidemic in 1918, and a 2.5 year drop during the Covid-19 pandemic. There were also notable plateaus (and minor decreases) not due to major historical events, such as that of the 2010s, which has been attributed to a combination of factors such as unhealthy lifestyles, poor access to healthcare, poverty, and increased suicide rates, among others. However, despite the rate of progress slowing since the 1950s, most decades do see a general increase in the long term, and current UN projections predict that life expectancy at birth in the U.S. will increase by another nine years before the end of the century.

The infant mortality rate in Poland, for children under the age of one year old, was 177 deaths per thousand births in 1925. This means that for all babies born in 1925, almost 18 percent did not survive past their first birthday. The rate increased slightly in the late 1930s, as the Second World War began, and then no information is available during the early 1940s. From the late 1940s onwards, Poland's infant mortality rate drops consistently, and today it is just three deaths per thousand births.

The child mortality rate in the United Kingdom, for children under the age of five, was 329 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that approximately one in every three children born in 1800 did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 220 years, this number has dropped drastically, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just four deaths per thousand births.

The infant mortality rate in Spain, for children under the age of one year old, was 180 deaths per thousand births in 1860. This means that for all babies born in 1860, approximately eighteen percent did not survive past their first birthday. Unfortunately no data is available for the early 1870s and early 1890s. Infant mortality in Spain was over 200 deaths per thousand in 1900, but then dropped significantly over the next 120 years, increasing only in the 1930s as a result of the Spanish Civil War. Infant mortality in Spain will have dropped to its lowest point ever by the end of 2020, to just two deaths per thousand births.

In 2021, the infant mortality rate in the United Kingdom was four deaths one year per 1,000 live births, one of the lowest infant mortality rate in this period. Infant mortality has fallen considerably since 1900, when there were 150 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.

This database contains cross-sectional data for all municipalities in the Netherlands during two distinct periods: 1877–1879 and 1908–1910. For each municipality, a wide range of information is provided for these two short time frames. The data includes:

(1) Demographic indicators, such as mid-year and end-of-year population size (sometimes disaggregated by sex), infant mortality, stillbirths, births (total and male), illegitimate births, and male/female in- and out-migration figures.

(2) Religious composition, reporting absolute numbers of adherents per religion, including Orthodox Protestants, Dutch Reformed, Roman Catholics, and Jewish populations.

(3) Medical data, including the number of medical professionals (e.g., doctors, midwives, nurses) and detailed cowpox vaccination figures, including infant vaccinations and averages over multiple years. Toddler vaccination data is also included for the earlier period.

(4) Socioeconomic participation indicators, including the unemployment rate (for 1909), percentage employed in agriculture, female labor participation, and the number of eligible voters in municipal elections.

(5) Additional variables include the presence and duration of water pipe supply, economic region (CBS 1920–1930s), soil type, and municipal area size.

This dataset forms the empirical foundation for the historical-demographic research article "Regional differentials in infant mortality in the Netherlands in the late 19th and early 20th century: Cross-sectional spatial analyses at the municipal level." Included with the database are:

(1) The original Excel database containing all relevant data.

(2) An accompanying R Project file for data processing and analysis.

(3) Adjusted shapefiles in GeoJSON format, derived from the NLGis shapefiles by Boonstra (2007).

(4) Additional files, including R-script, regression tables and more.

When using this database, please cite the following sources:

(1) Mourits, Rick J.; Boonstra, Onno; Knippenberg, Hans; Hofstee, Evert W.; Zijdeman, Richard L. (2016). Historische Database Nederlandse Gemeenten. IISH Data Collection, V5. https://hdl.handle.net/10622/RPBVK4

(2) Boonstra, O.W.A. (2007). NLGis shapefiles. DANS. https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-xb9-t677

(3) Rutten, W. (1997). De vreselijkste aller harpijen: Pokkenepidemieën en pokkenbestrijding in Nederland in de achttiende en negentiende eeuw: Een sociaal-historische en historisch-demografische studie. Landbouwuniversiteit Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.18174/138379

In 1930, the infant mortality rate in Singapore was estimated to be 212 deaths per thousand live births, meaning that over 21% of all babies born in that year would not survive past their first birthday. The invasion and subsequent occupation of the island by the Empire of Japan in the Second World War had a significant impact on infant mortality in Singapore, raising mortality rates from 152 in 1940, to over 230 by 1945. Following the end of the Second World War and the removal of Japanese occupation from the island, however, infant mortality would rapidly decline throughout the remainder of the 20th century, as rapid modernization and an influx of overseas investment would result in significant improvements to living standards and healthcare. As a result, infant mortality would fall to just four deaths per thousand births by the turn of the century, and as infant mortality has continued to decline, it is estimated in 2020 that for every thousand children born in Singapore, 99.8% will make it past their first birthday, giving Singapore one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.

PERIOD: 1930. SOURCE: [Survey by the Statistics Bureau, Imperial Cabinet].

PERIOD: 1930-1934. SOURCE: [Survey by the Statistics Bureau, Imperial Cabinet].

The child mortality rate in Poland, for children under the age of five, was 369 deaths per thousand births in 1885. For every one thousand babies born in 1885, almost 37 percent did not survive past their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 135 years, this number has dropped drastically, reaching its lowest point ever in the period between 2015 and 2020, at four deaths per thousand births. In Poland's recorded history, there were two periods where the child mortality rate increased, which were in the 1910s and 1930s, mostly due tot he Spanish Flu pandemic that swept across the world, and also the events of the Second World War.

PERIOD: 1926-1930. SOURCE: [Survey by the Statistics Bureau, Imperial Cabinet].

Flat file. Complete transcription of deaths registered in Tasmania, 1900-1930, for the fellowship project "Epidemics, mortality and longevity", funded by the Australian Research Council. Hard-copy data provided by the Tasmanian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Not for general release.

The Historical Urban Ecological (HUE) data project was created for exploring and analyzing the urban health environments of seven major United States cities - Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Manhattan, and Philidelphia - from 1830 through 1930. The data for each city includes ward boundary changes, street networks, and ward-level data on disease, mortality, crime, and other variables reported by municipal departments. The HUE data set was produced for the "Early Indicators of Later Work Levels, Disease and Death" project, funded by the National Institute of Aging. This collection represents the GIS data for each of the seven American cities, and in addition to ward boundary changes and street networks, includes in-street sewer and water sanitation systems coverage. All cities except Cincinnati include sanitation infrastructure data, and for Baltimore only water infrastructure is available. The city of Chicago includes supplemental GIS layers which reflect a reconstruction of two of Homer Hoyt's maps of average land value (1933 dollars) in the City of Chicago for 1873 and 1892. The square mile areas defined by Hoyt using Chicago's system of mile streets have been fit to the HUE street centerlines for Chicago. The Excel data tables include information about deaths in each ward broken down by cause of death, age, race, gender, as well as information about live births and deliveries.

This project report should be considered an amendment to the 1995 report produced by Drs. James Allen and Sammy King and the 2001 report produced by Dr. Bob Keeland, Mr. John McCoy and Ms. Krisi Wharton. Green-Tree Reservoirs were originally developed in Arkansas during the early 1930s to restore at least a component of the rapidly disappearing waterfowl habitat.

Mortality rates were calculated from data on the number of live trees of each species at each measurement. The number of live trees in 1990 was taken as a baseline and all mortality is based on that number. From these data the annual mortality rates were calculated by dividing the total mortality for the time period by the number of years between measurements.

PERIOD: 1926-1930. SOURCE: [Survey by the Statistics Bureau, Imperial Cabinet].

The child mortality rate in Spain, for children under the age of five, was 451 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that over 45 percent of all children born in 1800 did not make it to their fifth birthday. Child mortality remained above 300 for most of the nineteenth century, before falling at a much faster rate throughout the 1900s. Despite falling consistently during the last 120 years, there were two occasions where child mortality actually increased, which can be attributed to the Spanish Flu Pandemic in the 1910s and the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. In 2020, the child mortality rate in Spain is expected to be just three deaths per thousand births.

PERIOD: 1930-1934. SOURCE: [Survey by the Statistics Bureau, Imperial Cabinet].