Pair-bond and survival in historical population: Marriage, widowhood, and social class;
: Pettay, Jenni E.; Lahdenperä, Mirkka; Tanskanen, Antti O.; Lummaa, Virpi; Danielsbacka, Mirkka
Publisher: Elsevier BV
: 2026
iScience
: 115759
: 29
: 5
: 2589-0042
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.115759
: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.115759
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/524404570
Marriage is widely associated with improved health and longevity, but spousal death significantly heightens immediate mortality risk, a phenomenon known as the “widowhood effect.” While these relationships are well-documented in modern populations, their prevalence in historical societies with extended family structures is less understood. Using church book records from Finland (1730–1910) and discrete-time event models, this study examined the survival probabilities of 11,892 individuals aged 40–90 across five marital statuses, with attention to socioeconomic status. In line with previous studies, we found large detrimental short-term widowhood effect. Long-term widowhood effect was smaller, and lower in women compared to men. Survival after remarriage was similar to first-time marriage. The survival of individuals who had never married did not differ from those who were married, suggesting that more communal living may have buffered against the possible negative effects of being single.
Association between, HIGHLIGHTS, Remarried, Short term
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The study is funded by the Strategic Research Council established within the Research Council of Finland to the NetResilience consortium (grant nos. 364371 and 364385) and the INVEST Research Flagship (grant no. 345546). We also acknowledge funding from the Research Council of Finland (ML, grant no. 371390; AOT, grant no. 338869), European Research Council to KinSocieties (V.L., ERC-2022-ADG, grant no. 101098266), Human Diversity consortium, under the Profi7 program (VL, ML, grant no. 352727) and the Centre of Excellence (grant no. 374221) by the Research Council of Finland. We thank all the genealogists and research assistants involved in collecting and digitizing parish records for this study, particularly Kimmo Pokkinen and Aino Siitonen. We also want to thank anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.
