Demographic Changes in European Industrializing Towns Examples and Elements for Comparison.

ABSTRACT: Large databases assembled for industrializing European cities now permit crosscultural comparisons of populations that underwent demographic changes as a result of the industrialization process in the nineteenth century. The article draws into a comparative framework communities in France, Sweden, and Belgium, and compares their population development during early industrialization when population growth was rapid (paroxysmal). Special attention is paid to household structure, infant, and child mortality, and differential behaviors of "immigrant" and "native" populations. Finally, the article offers a general model population change during early industrialization as a comparative framework for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]