The Demographic Foundations of the Lived Experience of Kin Death

The last two centuries have been marked by extremely large increases in life expectancy and reductions in variability of age at death. In this paper, we analyze how the `mortality revolution' has altered individuals' lived experience of death during life. Drawing upon nearly 360 years of historical and projected age-specific demographic rates for Sweden, we use formal demographic analysis and microsimulation to measure the extent and timing of child loss across the demographic transition as well as the average age at first experience of death of a maternal kin member and the type of kin death experienced. Our results indicate a considerable reduction in child loss across cohorts and a concentration of child loss in old age, an increase in the average age individuals experience their first maternal kin death, and a shift in first death experience from that of a sister, mother, or aunt to that of a grandmother. The transformation of the lived experience of kin death that we document has had profound implications for the health and well-being of individuals, the timing of major life course events, and the inequality of access to kinship resources.