Welcome to the CPE Newsletter

How do you predict the future? By studying the past. For 20 years, the Center for Population Economics has mined the National Archives's Union Army Data Set to produce statistics that top researchers have used to forecast future trends in aging, health, and retirement.

Our new biannual newsletter will point you to some of the latest research based on CPE data and tell you about new data sets as they become available, including our first using municipal records to amplify CPE findings. Visit our website to learn even more and to see our workshop schedule.

Robert Fogel

Director and Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of American Institutions

What Made a "Good" Neighborhood in the 19th Century

The urban population booms of the 19th century came with a cost: some unhealthy environments — especially in neighborhoods where conditions were the worst. In "Reconstructing a GIS of 19th Century Urban Environmental Conditions," researchers show how environmental conditions affected lifetime health and economic outcomes. Learn which factors made a difference > (pdf)

Old War Wounds Shortened Lives of Veterans

Even though they survived, Civil War veterans who had been injured did not live as long as soldiers who had escaped injury. In "Was What Ail'd Ya' What Kill'd Ya'?" researchers including Robert Fogel, Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of American Institutions, find data in health records that is likely to predict the cause of death. Find out what shortened veterans' life spans > (pdf)

New City Data Available for Six Major U.S. Cities

Detailed street maps of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, and Philadelphia from 1930 are being created by researchers through the Center for Population Economics. This is an exciting work in progress, with some parts of the data to become available at the end of the summer. Interested researchers can email Joey Burton.

Complete Union Army Data Includes Black Troops, Andersonville Inmates

The Union Army Data set is now complete. Researchers can get information on 3,000 additional soldiers as well as black veterans and those imprisoned at Andersonville. Access new data sets.