Territorial differentiation of population mortality in the Baltic States

Aleksandrs Dahs

University of Latvia

DOI: 10.22364/fg.15.20

Keywords: regional demography, population mortality, spatial analysis

Abstract

During the last decade, depopulation issues have been widely discussed by both the academic and political communities of Latvia and the other Baltic States. Although scientific literature has sufficiently described the migration component of the depopulation processes in Latvia, the role of natural population movement – and specifically, population mortality – in the reduction of population numbers has received comparatively less attention due to low availability of relevant statistical and spatial data. In 2011, Latvia had its first Population and Housing Census after the completion of the 1999–2009 administrative-territorial reform. The census results have not only corroborated the previously estimated scale of the regional depopulation problem, but also provided an opportunity for a much more detailed regional demographic analysis on the level of individual municipalities. Therefore, using the 2011 census data, as well as other available statistical and spatial information, an indirect standardisation of the mortality rates in Latvian municipalities was conducted. In order to gauge the scale of similar demographic problems in the closest neighbouring countries, the mortality rates of Lithuanian and Estonian districts were also standardized. By adding the spatial data to the calculation results, opportunities for both graphical and spatial data analysis have been expanded. Results suggest significant differences in male and female mortality within multiple territorial units. It can also be concluded that male mortality is subject to a noticeable spatial autocorrelation across Latvian municipalities.