Language group mortality differentials in Finland: the effects of local language proportions

Petteri Sipilä, University of Helsinki

The higher mortality among Finnish-speaking than Swedish-speaking Finns is well established. One proposed explanation relates to differences in the quality of social environments. Our study makes use of this notion by comparing the external and alcohol-related mortality of the two language-groups in areas with varying language-group distributions. Utilising an register-based data with information on over 42 000 external and alcohol related deaths from years 1996-2005 and a wide range of covariates we used regression methods to assess the independent effect of local language-group composition on mortality by language-group. Living in areas where Swedish-speakers are most prevalent has a favourable effect on mortality among Swedish-speaking females and older males. These effects generally did not apply to Finnish speakers. In younger males no consistent patterns were found. Language-group composition is clearly an important factor behind the differential mortality between the language-groups.