CEMETERY DEMOGRAPHY

Demography is the study of the internal composition of populations and the effects of that composition on population growth. Age is an important structuring component for many populations because fecundity and survivorship frequently vary with age.

One very familiar species whose fecundity and survivorship is affected by age is humans (Homo sapiens). One approach to studying demography in human populations is to gather survivorship data from cemetery tombstones. We can determine ages at death for a cohort of individuals born in the same time interval and construct an age-specific survivorship schedule for the cohort. Different cohorts can then by compared to study the effects of factors such as historical events, gender, geographic locale,and socio-economic status on survivorship.

Listed below are cemetery demography data sets collected by students at various institutions and available on the Web. Data sets are available in one or both of two forms-- summary and raw. Summary tables follow the format in the Ecological Society of America's Experiments to Teach Ecology (J. M. Beiswenger, ed., 1993). The tables contain dx values for 10-year age classes (numbers of deaths at ages 0-9, 10-19, 20-29, etc.) for cohorts of individuals born in the same time period. Also available are the raw data files, lists of records with year of birth, year of death, and sex of each individual.

Bloomsburg area, PA, USA-- data from small towns and surrounding rural areas; priniciple economic activities: agriculture, textile manufacturing; individuals born 1800-1895.

summary table         raw data

Wilkes Barre area, PA, USA-- data from Hollenback Cemetery (primarily upper- and middle-class individuals), Wilkes Barre; Forty Fort Cemetery, Forty Fort; St. Mary's Cemetery (Catholic), Hanover Township; Hanover Green, Hanover Township.

Chester, PA, USA-- data from Chester Rural Cemetery (despite the name, the cemetery is in an urban area).

summary table         raw data

Tallahassee, FL, USA-- data for individuals born 1800-1850.

Kirkland Township, NY; Newberry, SC; Wellesley and Natick, MA; Geneva, NY; Wilkes Barre, PA; Collegeville and St. Joseph, MN; Carterville, IL, USA-- summary tables for a variety of student-collected data sets.

Go to ESA-EdWeb
This page is maintained by Marianna D. Wood, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg PA. To ask questions, to give feedback, or to have a link to your cemetery demography data set added, e-mail mwood@bloomu.edu.