For in-person attendees, the talk will be preceded by a light lunch at 12.15pm.

Please email comms@sociology.ox.ac.uk with any questions.

Abstract

Mortality is often used as an indicator of crisis or inequality, but in a global and historical perspective, the recording of deaths itself is a luxury. Many deaths go unacknowledged by the state and therefore by official statistics. This complicates the estimation of inequality in mortality, as impoverished groups may seem relatively healthy simply because their deaths go unrecorded. Different populations of interest may also have different demographic structures, further complicating the comparison of their crude mortality burden. 

Recent work has estimated that Indigenous Alaska Natives suffered pandemic mortality during the main waves of the 1918–20 influenza pandemic at a rate that was 8.7 times higher than non-indigenous residents of Alaska. Accounting for the biasing effects of differential death registration completeness, differential census enumeration completeness, and differential age-sex structure, I estimate that the true Indigenous versus non-indigenous risk ratio of pandemic mortality in Alaska fell between 28.6 and 49.2. 

Uncertainties remain about Alaska Natives’ true level and pattern of baseline mortality and census completeness for Alaska Natives in this period, as well as whether death registration completeness worsened or may have surprisingly improved during the pandemic. However, these findings highlight the extreme burden of mortality that Indigenous communities in Alaska faced during the pandemic: an estimated 8.5–14.7% of Alaska Natives died during the pandemic’s main waves. Like the experience of Covid-19 in sub-Saharan Africa, this case illustrates how deficiencies in data and differences in demographic structure can obscure the mortality experienced by impoverished populations during crises.