[Approaches to risk analysis of infant mortality in the 19th century in 2 adjacent South Germany rural communities].

High infant mortality, regional differences, and the remaining likewise differences over a long time period were already known in the last century. Multifactorial models were discussed to explain this phenomenon and great importance was given to social factors in these societies. We analysed two populations from the same region in South Germany with a high infant mortality in the 19th century. The environment (e.g. climate, rural regions) was similar, the two villages had small differences in population size. Since the end of the 16th century the two villages have belonged to different denominations, one village is catholic, the other protestant, and there are no marriages between them (until today). All data we analysed, came from parochial registers. The results show that in all decades of the last century the infant mortality was higher in the catholic population (about 450) than in the protestant population (ca. 350). We can find these differences on the microlevel, too. The comparison of families (marriages concluded 1840-1849 and 1850-1859) show the same effect. The analysis of the influences on the number of children per family and the age of the mother at birth of their children to infant mortality confirm the hypothesis that social factors, strongly influenced by the denomination, are the main factors to explain the differences.