Visualising regional inequalities in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic in England and Wales

Abstract

We examine regional inequalities in mortality from the 1918 pandemic in England and Wales. Crude mortality rates (per 100,000 for June 1918 to May 1919) from the Registrar General’s 1920 report were directly allocated to crude mortality rates for 306 administrative units. A custom GIS ShapeFile was constructed to map the rates first as a choropleth and then as a cartogram. The visualisations show a clear north-south divide in mortality in England with the northern areas and – to a lesser extent – the midlands and Wales having higher rates than the south. It also demonstrates an urban-rural divide with more sparsely populated areas – across both England and Wales – having lower rates.