The Mortality of Ethnic Groups in Northern China and Soviet Central Asia

The main goal of this study is to derive ethnic group-specific mortality indicators for certain minority populations of the PRC and the USSR. Using official data, the authors estimate infant mortality rates for the indigenous population of six traditionally Moslem union republics of the Soviet Union, and the infant mortality rate of the non-Han population in two autonomous regions of northern China: Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and Neimenggu Autonomous Region (Inner Mongolia). They also discuss mortality at older ages for the minority populations in these regions. Comparison of mortality of the populations of these regions between the PRC and the USSR is interesting because of the similarity in ethnic background of the groups on both sides of the border and because the methods of estimation are similar in the two cases. Studying mortality of ethnic groups is difficult because both in the Soviet Union and the PRC mortality data have rarely been reported for them.