Determinants of Mortality

When we study population geography, we often focus on why people are born (fertility) and why they migrate. But a crucial third component—often overlooked—is why people die and what factors influence death rates in a society. This is what we call the study of mortality.

Mortality is not just a biological event. It is deeply social, economic, and even political. A person may die because of old age, yes—but someone else might die in their twenties because they didn’t have access to a basic hospital. Another may survive into their nineties in a country with universal healthcare and good nutrition.

So, just like in fertility, mortality too is governed by a web of interrelated factors, which we broadly divide into two categories:

1. Endogenetic Factors – These are internal, biological causes.
2. Exogenetic Factors – These come from external, environmental, or social conditions.

Now, let’s break discuss the key determinants one by one.

1. Demographic Structure

📊 Age Structure

• Mortality is age-selective. Very young children and the elderly are most vulnerable.
• In countries with a larger aging population (like Japan or Italy), mortality rates tend to be higher.
• Conversely, youth-dominant populations (like India) exhibit lower crude death rates, even if individual risks are high.

🚻 Gender

• Across the globe, females tend to live longer than males. Biology gives them a slight edge.
• However, this advantage can reverse in patriarchal societies where women face neglect, malnutrition, or lack of access to healthcare—leading to higher female mortality, especially in early life.

🏙️ Urbanisation

Urbanisation’s effect on mortality is complex and evolves in stages:

1. Initial Stage: As cities grow and migrants flood in, mortality may rise due to poor housing, congestion, and disease.
2. Development Stage: With better infrastructure and healthcare, mortality decreases.
3. Industrial Saturation Stage: Over-industrialization can lead to pollution and lifestyle diseases, pushing mortality rates up again.

🔖 Lewis Mumford called such a city a “Necropolis”—a city of the living dead, where despite high standards of living, the quality of life deteriorates.

2. Social Factors

👶 Infanticide

• In societies where female infanticide or neglect is common, infant mortality rates rise.

🏥 Availability of Medical Facilities

• There is a direct correlation between mortality and the doctor-to-population ratio.
• More physicians → better care → lower mortality.

🍽️ Nutrition, Housing, and Sanitation

• Malnutrition weakens immunity.
• Poor housing spreads disease.
• Lack of clean water and sanitation leads to preventable deaths.

🎓 Literacy

• More literate societies show lower mortality.
• Especially female literacy improves maternal health and child survival rates.

🛐 Religious Beliefs

• Sometimes religious ideologies influence people’s attitude towards modern medicine or life-saving practices, impacting mortality indirectly.

3. Economic Development

💸 Income and Occupation

• Richer people can afford better food, housing, and healthcare.
• But paradoxically, industrial societies may suffer higher death rates due to pollution, stress, and sedentary lifestyles.
• Agricultural societies may benefit from open-air environments but often lack medical infrastructure.

📈 Standard of Living

• Rich families can afford a balanced diet, clean surroundings, and timely healthcare.
• However, once universal healthcare becomes accessible, disparities in mortality tend to reduce across economic classes.

4. Other Factors

🌪️ Natural Disasters

• Earthquakes, floods, droughts, and cyclones cause sudden spikes in mortality.

⚔️ Wars and Conflicts

• Wars not only kill soldiers but cause collateral deaths through famine, disease, and displacement.

😷 Epidemics and Pandemics

• COVID-19, Spanish Flu, or even localized disease outbreaks can reverse years of improvement in mortality trends in just months.

🔚 Conclusion

Mortality is not merely a question of “who dies.” It is a mirror to a society’s health systems, economy, social ethics, urban planning, and human rights. A low mortality rate is not just a statistic—it is a signal of a civilized, organized, and compassionate society.

Just like understanding why people are born tells us about their hopes and culture, understanding why people die tells us about their challenges and structures. And in that sense, mortality is not the end of demographic studies—it’s a crucial point of understanding life itself.