Decennial Life Tables for the White Population of the United States, 1790–1900

Abstract

This article constructs new life tables for the white population of the United States in each decade between 1790 and 1900. Drawing from several recent studies, it suggests best estimates of life expectancy at age 20 for each decade. These estimates are fitted to new standards derived from the 1900-02 rural and 1900-02 overall DRA life tables using a two-parameter logit model with fixed slope. The resulting decennial life tables more accurately represent sex-and age-specific mortality rates while capturing known mortality trends.

Ready, Willing, and Able? Impediments to the Onset of Marital Fertility Decline in the United States

“…I relied on the IPUMS samples, own-child estimation methods (Cho et al 1986), new decennial life tables (Hacker 2010), and new estimates of census underenumeration (Hacker 2013) to construct national and regional fertility estimates for the white population. The inclusion of marital status in the IPUMS samples—imputed in the 1850–1870 samples and enumerated in the 1880 sample—allows estimation of marital fertility rates and the construction of popular indexes of marital fertility (Ruggles 1995).…”

Health and the Economy in the United States from 1750 to the Present

“…In contrast, life expectancy at age 10 in Sweden was 46. Hacker’s (2010) series (life expectancy at birth is shown in Figure 1) puts the low point during the 1860s, a period of wartime hardship. Mortality data from genealogies shows that life expectancy at age 20 declined from approximately 47 years at the beginning of the century to slightly less than 41 years in the 1850s and recovery to levels of the early 1800s was not attained until the end of the nineteenth century (Pope 1992).…”

Beyond black and white: Color and mortality in post-reconstruction era North Carolina

“…While both the population and mortality censuses contain rich information, both data sources are characterized by varying levels of population undercounts [55, 56] Reasons for underenumeration of deaths might include the length of time since the death in question or the dissolution of a household following the death of the head of household [56, 57]. While we recognize the importance of these issues, there are several reasons that previous researchers have used these data as a valuable resource on mortality trends during this time period [58-61].…”

“…The U.S. government only implemented national vital statistics data collection systems, such as those from the National Death Registration Area (DRA) during the early part of the twentieth century. These early collection efforts only included a small number of northeastern states and the District of Columbia [57]. The heavily urban DRA, at least at its inception, was not particularly representative of the national black population [62].…”