Geographical Extraction and the Finnish-Swedish Health Differential in Finland

Abstract

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 Finlands longitudinal employment statistics ? le, we ? 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 suf? 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.