Yearbook of Population Research in Finland 41 (2005), pp. 61–73 Geographical Extraction and the Finnish- Swedish Health Differential in Finland JAN SAARELA, D.Soc.Sc., Docent in Population Economics

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: mortality; disability retirement; geographical extraction; language groups; Finland; Northern Finland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.575.941; http://www.vasa.abo.fi/users/jsaarela/manuscripts/Yearbook of Population Research in Finland, 2005, 41, 61-73.pdf

Previous research concerned with the Finnish-Swedish mortality differential in Finland tends to have overlooked the fact that many Finnish speakers who live in the same coastal area as the Swedish speakers originate from parts of the country with high death rates. Using an extract from Statistics Finland’s longitudinal employment statistics fi le, we fi nd that geographical extraction is an important factor underlying variation in both mortality and disability retirement in working-aged people. Finnish speakers born in eastern and northern Finland have substantially poorer health than those originating from western Finland. It is consequently not suffi cient to restrict analyses only by present region of residence. Still, there remains a between-group health differential also in people born in the coastal area, which suggests that health behaviors and risk factors could be relevant.