MORTALITY IN QUEBEC DURING THE 19TH-CENTURY - FROM THE STATE TO THE CITIES

The aim of this paper is to explore mortality in Quebec during the nin eteenth century from a demographic perspective. During the nineteenth century, there was excess urban mortality in various countries; in ord er to identify such mortality differentials, we compared mortality ind icators for the province of Quebec and then for the urban areas of Mon treal and Quebec City. Using data from various studies, we produced li fe tables and compared life expectancies. We show that at different ti mes during the nineteenth century, spatial variations in mortality lev els across the province of Quebec and its urban areas were significant . According to the data we analyzed, mortality is undoubtedly higher i n urban areas even though a convergence in trends took place towards t he end of the century, resulting in an overall reduction in mortality. Also, exploring life expectancies within a cohort approach at times o f fast-changing mortality patterns has proved to be instructive. Life expectancy estimates based on a cross-sectional approach were systemat ically lower than those resulting from a cohort-specific one. Trends d iverged to a greater extent beginning with the 1870 cohort, reflecting the improvements made from that point on to World War II. Since curre nt mortality levels are substantially determined by the cumulative eff ects of past behaviour specific to each generation, it is quite obviou s that mortality analysis will reveal its true meaning only with the h elp of cohort life tables.