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Home , Chilaw, Districts of Sri Lanka, Hambantota, Jaffna, Trincomalee

This document has been created by AHDS History and is based on information supplied by the depositor

SN 3454 - Demography of , 1900-1954

Study Documentation

AHDS HISTORY EXPLANATORY NOTE:

This document is, almost in its entirety, a transcription of the original documentation. There are, however, some differences with the original, in that this new documentation contains a look up table with information about the various tab delimited data files, and in that some wordings and spelling mistakes in the original file have been corrected.

DOCUMENTATION BEGINS

Notes on data provided:

This project involved establishing computer files containing information from the censuses of Sri Lanka and from vital registration for the period 1900-1954 inclusive. Data from vital registration were included (If available) for every year. Census data were obviously only available for census years i.e. 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931 (only a very rudimentary census), 1946 and 1953.

The following data were included in files, if available (gaps in files indicate the data concerned were not available). All data come from the Reports of the Registrar General of Ceylon on Vital Statistics, from the Ceylon Government Gazette and from census reports.

LOOK UP TABLE:

The data is presented as tab delimited data files organised in folders. The folders correspond to the original data files deposited in AHDS History in a Lotus 123 format, which is not longer usable. The following is a look up table explaining what data is kept in which folder.

Folder name Content of folder Sl1901chwk1 1901 census data for entire Sri Lanka population and by races for all races separately sl1901cswk1 1901 census data by races: all races together, all races separately, and : and sl1901cswk2 1901 census data by districts: Colombo, Negombo, , and Natale, for only and for all races sl1901cswk3 1901 census data by districts: , , Mannar, and , for Tamils only and for all races sl1901cswk4 1901 census data by districts: , , , Matara and , for Tamils only and for all races sl1901cswk5 1901 census data by districts: , , and , for Tamils only and for all races sl1901cswk6 1901 census data by districts: Kegalla and , for Tamils only and for all races sl1911cswk1 1911 census data for all races separately, and in the Colombo for Tamils only and for all races sl1911cswk2 1911 census data by districts: Kalutara and Kandy, for Tamils only and for all races sl1911cswk3 1911 census data by districts: Jaffna, Mannar, and Nuwara Eliya, for Tamils only and for all races sl1921cswk1 1921 census data for all races separately, and in the for Tamils only and for all races sl1921cswk2 1921 census data by districts: Kandy and Kalutara, for Tamils only and for all races sl1921cswk3 1921 census data by districts: Jaffna, Mannar, Matale and Nuwara Eliya, for Tamils only and for all races sl1931cswk1 1931 census data for all Sri Lanka, and for the district of Colombo for Tamils only and for all races sl1946cswk1 1946 census data for all races separately, and by districts: Galle, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Batticaloa, Chilaw, Hambantota, Jaffna, Kalutara, Kegalla, Kurunegala, Mannar, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Puttalam, Ratnapura, Tricomalee and , for all races together sl1946cswk2 1946 census data for Tamils only by districts: Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Batticaloa, Chilaw, Hambantota, Jaffna, Kalutara, Kegalla, Kurunegala, Mannar, Matale, Mullaitivu, Nuwara Eliya, Puttalam, Ratnapura, Tricomalee and Vavuniya, and for Tamils across Sri Lanka sl1953cswk1 1953 census data for all races separately, and for districts: Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Batticaloa, Chilaw, Hambantota, Jaffna, Kalutara, Kegalla, Kurunegala, Mannar, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Puttalam, Ratnapura, Tricomalee and Vavuniya for Tamils only and for all races together sl1953cswk2 1953 census data for Tamils across Sri Lanka, and for districts: Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Batticaloa, Chilaw, Hambantota, Jaffna, Kalutara, Kegalla, Kurunegala, Mannar, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Puttalam, Ratnapura, Tricomalee and Vavuniya. slvsbmthwk1 Registrations of births for 1940 and for 1950 to 1954 slvsbswk1 Registrations of births for 1900 to 1954 slvscdqwk2 Registrations of deaths for 1910 to 1921 slvsdaswk3 Registrations of deaths by sex and age in 1920 to 1922 slvsdmthwk3 Registrations of deaths by months and sex for 1937 to 1945

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A Data from vital registration

Numbers of births and deaths and infant deaths, and numbers of deaths from selected causes of death (influenza, pneumonia, all respiratory diseases, malaria, pyrexia, accidents plus violence, unspecified causes), by sex, for each year, quarter and month these for the whole of Sri Lanka, the 21 administrative (Colombo, Negombo, Kalutara, Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Jaffna, Mannar, Mullaittiwu, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Chilaw, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Ratnapura and Kegalla), five etnic groups (Low Country Sinhalese, Kandyan Sinhalese, Ceylon Tamils, Indian Tamils, Ceylon Moors), the 21 administrative districts of Sri Lanka (all Tamils only), and the estate (plantation) sector of Sri Lanka.

Numbers of deaths by age group and sex for each year for the whole of Sri Lanka and for the ethnic groups.

Numbers of deaths by age group and sex for the three separate years around each census year, these for the whole of Sri Lanka, all Tamils, the 21 administrative districts of Sri Lanka, and for all Tamils by district [these data can be combined with census data to give rates for the three-year periods around census years].

Numbers of live births and stillbirths by sex for each year 1912-1954 and each quarter 1912-1921 in urban areas of Sri Lanka only.

B Data from the censuses

Numbers by sex, age group and marital status for all Sri Lanka, the ethnic groups, administrative districts, all Tamils by district, and the estate sector of Sri Lanka [almost none of these data available from the 1931 census].

Numbers aged 5+ by sex and numbers by sex aged 5+ literate and illiterate for the same groups as above [NOTHING FOR 1931].

C Checks earned out on data

All possible consistency checks within and between files were carried out. Clear errors in published data were corrected.

1 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH RESULTS

A wide range of demographic data from the censuses of Sri Lanka and from vital registration for the period 1926-1954 were entered onto computer files. Since comparable

3 data for the period 1900-1925 had already been established on computer files this meant that the whole period 1900-1954 could be analysed.

The intention was to investigate levels and trends in mortality, fertility and nuptiality in Sri Lanka prior to the 1950s. An extensive analysis of the data has been carried out and a paper on the reasons for the decline in mortality that took place in Sri Lanka was published1. The most important finding in this connection is that mortality began to decline about 1920 but that there was a dramatic improvement in the late 1930s. This had been overlooked previously because the data had not been examined in enough detail. The period is difficult to deal with because it is sandwiched between a disastrous malaria epidemic in 1934-35 and the Second World War when mortality increased again.

The fact that mortality declined markedly just before WWII is important in the context of the debate that has taken place about the dramatic improvement in mortality that apparently occurred in the late 1940s in Sri Lanka. Some have attributed this largely to the spraying of DDT in the post-war period and consequent suppression of mosquitoes and hence malaria while others have emphasised the improved provision of health services. The fact that mortally fell dramatically prior to WWII strongly suggests that factors were already operating to reduce mortality substantially before the spraying of DDT began. The possible Importance of measures against hookworm disease during the 1930s as well as pre-DDT attempts to control malaria was being assessed.

The realisation that hookworm disease in combination with malaria was very important for mortality in Sri Lanka in the pre-WWII period led to the re-examination of previous work on the reasons for excess female mortality in Sri Lanka. A paper already prepared was re-written to suggest that excess female mortally was largely due to the fact that females were more affected by these diseases than males in Sri Lanka.

Further research was conducted on changes in nuptiality and fertility.

2 FULL REPORT OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS

Background

Although a great deal of work has been done on the historical demography of the developed world, relatively little research has been carried out in relation to the corresponding (i.e. pre-Demographic Transition) period in the Third World. An Important exception is the volume entitled ’s Historical Demography: Studies in Famine, Disease and Society, edited by Tim Dyson (Curzon Press, 1989). The general problem is one of data, very often there are simply none available at all, where data are available these are often of poor quality. Reasonable data from registration (e. g. of births and deaths) are especially uncommon.

1 See Langford, C. (2002) 'Reasons for the decline in mortality in Sri Lanka immediately after the Second World War: a re-examination of the evidence' in P. C. E Athukorala. (ed.) The economic development of , v. III, Cheltenham: Elgar Publishing.

4 SKI Lanka has, almost certainly, the best historical demographic data available for any Third World country. Censuses have been taken intermittently since 1871, births and deaths have been registered since 1867. There are good indications that the materials available at least for this century are usable. This project involved exploiting these data to examine changes in fertility, nuptiality and mortality in Sri Lanka during the period 1900- 1954.

Objectives

The three main Objectives specified in the original research proposal to the ESRC were (i) to establish computer files containing historical Sri Lankan demographic data from registration and censuses for the period 1926-1954 (files of data for 1900-1925 already being available), (ii) to use the data for the entire period 1900-1954 to examine trends in fertility, nuptiality and mortality and (iii) to investigate the reasons for the changes that occurred.

Research assistance for two years was requested, with half of the depositor’s time pledged to the project. On this basis it was envisaged that data preparation, entry and consistency-checking would take nine months, the main analysis of the data six months, and the finalisation and writing-up of the material nine months. In the event, the ESRC was only able to support the project for 12 months.

All of the data specified in the research proposal were entered onto computer files. These comprised from the censuses of 1946 and 1953, numbers by marital status, age group and sex, all for the whole of Sri Lanka, four ethnic groups (4), and for administrative districts (20), as well as data on literacy for these same sub-groups, and from vital registration, for each year between 1926 and 1954 (where available) , live births and stillbirths by sex, maternal deaths , deaths by age group and sex and deaths by major causes of death by sex, all for the whole of Sri Lanka, four ethnic groups and 20 administrative districts. The process of extracting these data from official reports, keying them in to the computer, and consistency-checking the resulting computer files took eleven months rather than the nine months originally envisaged. The reason was that there were more inconsistencies in the published data for this period than had been encountered in earlier work, so that the consistency-checking of the computer files and correction of errors was more time- consuming.

In the one month remaining of research assistance provided by the ESRC, a beginning was made on the analysis of the material. This process was continued by the depositor.

Results

The analysis of the mortality data has been focussed particularly on the 1930s and 1940s. There has been a long-running debate on the extent to which the dramatic decline in mortality in Sri Lanka after WWII might have been due to malaria eradication through DDT-spraying or to improvements in health services. The analysis indicates that there was clear and substantial improvement in mortality during the late 1930s, just prior to the

5 war. The importance of this is that it means there was dramatic improvement in mortality prior to DDT-spraying. This had been overlooked previously because the data had not been examined year-by-year. This is a necessary approach because the late 1930s were sandwiched between a disastrous malaria outbreak in 1934-35 and a period of worsening mortality during WWII.

The depositor has formed the impression that measures taken against malaria in the 1930s (e. g. drainage of swamps, spraying of oil on water to kill mosquito larvae) and the very active anti-hookworm campaign of that time (involving both education and the treatment of very large numbers of people) may have begun to have a substantial effect on mortality by the late 1930s, and that in some degree the dramatic decline in mortality after WWII was merely a resumption of this after a temporary worsening during the war.

The realisation that hookworm had been so important in Sri Lanka prompted a re- consideration of work, previously thought complete, on sex differentials in mortality in Sri Lanka early in the twentieth century and comparisons with India at that time. Sri Lanka had fairly marked excess female mortality whereas India (considered as a whole) apparently did not, this is the reverse of what would be expected if excess female mortality stemmed mainly from women’ s disadvantageous social situation (which is the general view) since the position of women in Sri Lanka was relatively good compared with India. The paper was completely re-written to suggest that excess female mortality in Sri Lanka stemmed mainly from the fact that hookworm infestation and malaria were very common and affected women of childbearing age more than men. This re-drafting was carried out in 1992 and further changes made in 1993 (in response to referees’ comments)2.

The analysis of nuptiality, and therefore of fertility, has proved difficult. It is clear from the data that in the early part of the twentieth century there was much misreporting of marital status in the census, the population recorded as never married is higher than is believable. This is probably related to the relative informality and instability of marriage among the Sinhalese who make up the great majority of the population. This is a serious problem since it not only makes it difficult to study levels and trends in nuptiality but it also makes it difficult to interpret levels and trends in fertility since the two are obviously intimately related. Nevertheless, it is hoped that ways round these problems can be found.

Outputs

A paper on sex differentials in mortality in Sri Lanka appeared in Populating and Development Review (see previous footnote).

Disks containing the data used in the project have been deposited with the UK Data Archive.

2 See Langford, C.M. and Storey, P. (1993) 'Sex differentials in mortality early in the twentieth century: Sri Lanka and India compared', Population and Development Review, 19(2), June, pp.263-282.

6 Future Research Priorities

The project has drawn attention to the importance of hookworm infestation for morbidity and mortality in Sri Lanka in the pre-WII period (and perhaps later). Research is needed on the extent and impact of hookworm disease in Sri Lanka and the operation and effectiveness of the anti-hookworm campaign which began in 1915

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