Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aims of this study were : to examine trends in fertility, nuptiality and mortality in Sri Lanka (Ceylon became Sri Lanka in 1972) in the period prior to demographic transition, i.e. prior to the 1950s. There is a tendency to suppose that, prior to transition, developing world countries had more or less constant fertility and mortality - at high levels - albeit with the fluctuations in both caused by famines and epidemics. There may have been more complex movements in Sri Lanka; to search for the reasons for changes which occurred, by examining how these varied across the approximately 20 administrative districts of the island and considering whether this variation was associated with district characteristics such as literacy, availability of health services, etc.

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Some problems were encountered by the Archive with the original files supplied for this dataset. More details are given below under 'Availability'. The following files comprise the data available to users : Births SLVSBS.WK1 : contains Sri Lanka vital statistics, giving births by gender from 1900 to 1954 for the 21 administrative districts, ethnic groups, (Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors) and Estates. It further subdivides Tamil births from 1940 into Ceylon and Indian Tamils. SLVSBMTH.WK1 : contains Sri Lanka vital statistics, giving births by sex by month from 1949 to 1954 for 21 administrative districts. SLVSBMTH.WK1 : this file was recovered by the Archive using <i>Norton Utilities</i> software. This process only recovered part of the data (45,565 out of 232,795 bytes). The file contains births by gender per quarter for the years 1900-1913 for all races, but only for 7 out of 21 districts. The unrecovered part includes 1914-1921 births by gender by quarter for all Sri Lanka, districts, and also Estates - total births by quarter 1900-25. Deaths SLVSCDQ.WK2 : causes of death, 1910 to 1921. SLVSDAS.WK3 : deaths by age by gender, 1920 to 1922. SLVSDMTH.WK3 : deaths by gender and by month, 1937 to 1945. Census Information The Census files contain information on population in age ranges, by gender and by marital status. Age ranges and marital status differ between the Censuses. The Census of 1931 only contains the total population for administrative districts and does not include marital status or age ranges.

No sampling (total universe)

Transcription of existing materials