Life Expectancy of the Ethnically Mixed: Register-Based Evidence from Native Finns

As the ethnic composition around the world is becoming more diverse, the need to produce vital statistics for ethnically mixed populations is continuously increasing. Our aim is to provide the first life expectancy estimates for individuals with uniform Finnish, uniform Swedish, and mixed Finnish-Sw...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2021-03, Vol.18 (7), p.3415
Main Authors: Reini, Kaarina, Saarela, Jan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Birth
Births
Calendars
Ethnic Groups
Female
Finland - epidemiology
Humans
Immigration
Life Expectancy
Life span
Longevity
Male
Minority & ethnic groups
Mortality
Native languages
Noncitizens
Parents & parenting
Population
Populations
Registration
Sweden - epidemiology
Vital statistics
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Summary:As the ethnic composition around the world is becoming more diverse, the need to produce vital statistics for ethnically mixed populations is continuously increasing. Our aim is to provide the first life expectancy estimates for individuals with uniform Finnish, uniform Swedish, and mixed Finnish-Swedish backgrounds, based on individuals in the native population of Finland who can be linked to both their parents. Life expectancy at birth in the period 2005-2015 was calculated from population and mortality numbers at the one-year level based on each person's sex, year of birth, and the unique ethnolinguistic affiliation of the index person and each parent. Swedish-registered individuals with Swedish-registered parents had the longest life expectancy at birth, or 85.68 years (95% CI: 85.60-85.77) for females and 81.36 for males (95% CI: 81.30-81.42), as compared to 84.76 years (95% CI: 84.72-84.79) and 78.89 years (95% CI: 78.86-78.92) for Finnish-registered females and males with Finnish-registered parents. Persons with mixed backgrounds were found in between those with uniform Finnish and uniform Swedish backgrounds. An individual's own ethnolinguistic affiliation is nevertheless more important for longevity than parental affiliation. Similar register-based analyses for other countries with mixed populations would be useful.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph18073415