ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the socio-economic determinants of mortality during the Finnish famine of the 1860s. Building on social vulnerability literature and using clustering methods, the author seeks to define prevailing local-level structures important in increasing the famine-related excess mortality. As is expected on the basis of the vulnerability literature, the more extreme the social conditions in the region, the more evident are the social determinants of famine mortality. Poverty measures were associated positively with mortality in regions which featured high levels of low-productivity farming households and low levels of average income. Income inequality and family structure were defined as important in regions displaying high between-household inequality and large mean household size. The author believes that these findings aid in deepening the measurement of famine vulnerability and outcomes related to it.
