The Demography of Victorian England and Wales

Robert Woods examines the changing population history of England and Wales beween 1837 and 1914.

Robert Woods (Author)

9780521782548, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 October 2000

476 pages, 16 colour illus. 50 tables
23.6 x 16 x 2.9 cm, 0.935 kg

'Anyone henceforth following the exact path of the Western demographic transition will be indebted to this excellent, almost monumental study.' Population Studies

The Demography of Victorian England and Wales uses the full range of nineteenth-century civil registration material to describe in detail for the first time the changing population history of England and Wales between 1837 and 1914. Its principal focus is the great demographic revolution which occurred during those years, especially the secular decline of fertility and the origins of the modern rise in life expectancy. But Robert Woods also considers the variable quality of the Victorian registration system; the changing role of what Robert Malthus termed the preventive check; variations in occupational mortality and the development of the twentieth-century class mortality gradient; and the effects of urbanisation associated with the significance of distinctive disease environments. The volume also illustrates the fundamental importance of geographical variations between urban and rural areas. This invaluable reference tool is lavishly illustrated with numerous tables, figures and maps, many of which are reproduced in full colour.

1. Bricks without straw
bones without flesh
2. Vital statistics
3. Whatever happened to the preventive check?
4. Family limitation
5. The laws of vitality
6. Mortality by occupation and social group
7. The origins of the secular decline of childhood mortality
8. Places and causes
9. The demographic consequences of urbanisation
10. The transformation of the English and other demographic regimes
11. Conclusions and unresolved conundrums.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]