Origin, birthplace, nationality and language of the Canadian people

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1794974814

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-182133

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Origin, birthplace, nationality and language of the Canadian people

Place of publication:: Ottawa

Publisher:: Acland

Year of publication:: 1929

Scope:: 224 S.; Diagramme

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XII. Relation of origins to fertility, infant mortality, blindness and deaf mutism

Collection:: Economics Books

ORIGIN AND INFANT MORTALITY 219 Rates for specified origins are arranged in order of size in Table 136. There is con- siderable variation shown in that table. Among the Indians 21 out of every one hundred infants born in 1925 died before reaching the age of twelve months, while among the [celandic people, for example, the rate was between 3 and 4 p.c. Thus nearly six times as large a proportion of infants born to Indian fathers died in the first year of life as in the case of those of Icelandic parentage. So great a difference is exceedingly significant. The numerically most important Slavic stocks in Canada appear in the top half of the table, as do the Latin and Greek peoples. The Germanic, Scandinavian and British stocks are grouped in the lower half, The difference between groups of peoples is shown more clearly in Table 137, which arranges them according to geographical and linguistic classes. There is considerable varia- tion within each of the geographical groups, suggesting that geographical origin is not a determining factor in the matter of mortality rate. The North Western European group, however, shows lower limits, both at the top and the bottom, than does the South, Eastern and Central European group, and the average stock in the former case shows an infant mortality of 6.39 p.c. and in the latter case 10.32 pe. It is rather surprising to find such wide variation in rates for the Asiatic stocks. The average is unduly high, owing to the influence of the mortality rates for the Hindoos and the Syrians, whose numbers are very small. It is interesting to note that the infant mortality for both the Japanese and Chinese is below the median rate for either the Latin and Greek or Slavie peoples. Indeed the rate of 4.58 p.c. for the Chinese is one of the lowest in Canada, a lower figure being shown only in three cases, namely, the Welsh, Jews and Icelanders. The low rate among the Chinese, how- ever may be due to incomplete registration of deaths among a small and unassimilated group. Among the linguistic groups the rates for the Scandinavians appear on the whole to oe the lowest. The average rate for the English speaking stocks is slightly higher than that for the Scandinavians. The rate of 4.46 for the Welsh is a little greater than the rate of 3.39 for the Icelandic, the lowest in the Scandinavian group; and the rate for the English, the highest of the English speaking stocks, is slightly higher than that for the Norwegians, the highest among the Scandinavian stocks. With both lower and upper limits aigher than the lower and upper limits of the Scandinavian group and with the average somewhat greater, it is safe to say that the English speaking stocks show a higher infant mortality rate than the Scandinavian peoples. Both groups, however. show comparatively low rates. The difference is not great. The rate for the average Germanic stock is higher than that for the average English speaking or Scandinavian people, although the rate for the Dutch (6.00 pe) is lower than for any except the Welsh in the former group. Among the English, Scandinavian, and Germanic peoples, the Belgians, with an infant mortality rate of 9.17 p.c., are considerably che highest, and the Icelanders, with a rate of 3.39 p.c., are by far the lowest. The other aine stocks are scattered more or less promiscuously between these upper and lower limits. Those of Latin and Greek origin show much higher mortality rates; their average is she highest of any group. The Austrians have the highest rate among the Slavs, and the Poles, Ukrainians and Russians follow in the order named. These four origins include the aumerically most important Slavic peoples immigrating to Canada. The rate for the Russians, the lowest of the four, is equal to that of the Belgians, which, with the exception of the French, was the highest of the North Western Europeans. On the other hand, some of the Slavs show remarkably low rates. The Czechs, the Bulgarians and Serbo-Croatians ll have infant mortality rates below those of the Irish or the Swedes, but while this is to she credit of those eastern peoples, it is not of such wvital significance to Canada as the aigher rates for the Austrians, Poles, Ukrainians and Russians, whose numbers are so large. The order of infant mortality rates for various origing in Canada appears somewhat similar to that obtained by arranging the origins in order of percentages illiterate. In order to determine whether any significant relationship between infant mortality and illiter- acy existed, the two series were correlated, but the interference of one or two extreme cases running directly contrary to expectations, e.g. the Chinese, rendered the results anreliable. When these cases are eliminated a moderate coefficient appears and conse- quently the conclusion is tentatively advanced that some connection does exist between nfant mortality and illiteracy.

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