The Role of Marital Status and Socioeconomic Class in Shaping Survival Outcomes in Pre-Industrial population

Marriage is consistently associated with better health and longevity, often attributed to economic advantages, health monitoring by a partner, and emotional support. Conversely, spousal death increases the risk of immediate mortality, known as the “widowhood effect.” Although these patterns are well-documented in contemporary populations, less is understood about their prevalence in historical populations, where extended family households may have mitigated the adverse effects of being unmarried or widowed. We investigated the effects of marital status on survival probabilities from age 40 onward, focusing on socioeconomic variability. Access to resources and coping mechanisms likely differed by social class, influencing how marital status affected survival across age groups and socioeconomic strata. We analyzed historical church book data from Finland (1730–1910), applying discrete-time event models to estimate annual survival for men (n = 5,802) and women (n = 6,203) aged 40 to 90. Time-varying marital statuses were categorized into five groups: never married, married, recently widowed, widowed, and remarried. Survival differences by marital status were strongly mediated by socioeconomic status (SES). Among high-SES individuals, never-married men and women had 15% and 21% higher survival rates, respectively, compared to their married counterparts. In contrast, among the moderate and lowest socioeconomic classes, survival probabilities for the never-married did not differ from those of the married. The survival advantage of never-married women was limited to ages below 60. Both men and women experienced sharp declines in survival during the two years following spousal loss (15–27%, depending on sex and class). Beyond this acute period, widowed men exhibited 5–10% lower survival rates across all classes compared to married men, while only high-SES widowed women faced a 6% survival disadvantage. Remarriage was associated with survival rates comparable to those of first-time marriage. This study provides insight into the survival advantages of pair-bonding in historical societies, characterized by high mortality rates, extended family structures, and the absence of modern medical resources.