Data from A.-M. Guerry, Essay on the Moral Statistics of France (1833)

Data file formats

Variable names, labels and descriptions

Values for the quantitative variables displayed on Guerry's maps were taken from Table A2 in the English translation of Guerry (1833) by Whitt and Reinking. Values for the ranked variables were taken from Table A1, with some corrections applied. The maximum is indicated by rank 1, and the minimum by rank 86.

Several other variables were added from the sources indicated.

Num Variable Type Label / Description / Source
1 dept Num Department ID
Standard numbers for the departments, except for Corsica (200).
2 Region Char(1) Region
Region of France ('N'='North', 'S'='South', 'E'='East', 'W'='West', 'C'='Central'). Corsica is coded as ' ' (missing, NA)
3 Department Char(25) Department name
Departments are named according to usage in 1830. See depts.txt for alternative encodings of departement names.
4 Crime_pers Num Pop. per Crime against persons
Source: A2 (Compte général, 1825-1830)
5 Crime_prop Num Pop. per Crime against property
Source: A2 (Compte général, 1825-1830)
6 Literacy Num Percent Read & Write
Percent of military conscripts who can read and write
Source: A2
7 Donations Num Donations to the poor
Source: A2 (Bulletin des lois)
8 Infants Num Pop. per illegitimate birth
Source: A2 ( Bureaau des Longitudes, 1817-1821)
9 Suicides Num Pop. per suicide
Source: A2 (Compte général, 1827-1830)
10 MainCity Char(5) Size of principal city
Size of principal city ('1:Sm', '2:Med', '3:Lg'), used as a surrogate for poulation density. Large refers to the top 10, small to the bottom 10; all the rest are classed Medium.
Source: A1
11 Wealth Rank Per capita tax on personal property
A ranked index based on taxes on personal and movable property per inhabitant
Source: A1
12 Commerce Rank Commerce & Industry
Commerce and Industry, measured by the rank of the number of patents / population
Source: A1
13 Clergy Rank Distribution of clergy
Distribution of clergy, measured by the rank of the number of Catholic priests in active service / population
Source: A1 (Almanach officiel du clergy, 1829)
14 Crime_parents Rank Crimes against parents
Crimes against parents, measured by the rank of the ratio of crimes against parents to all crimes-- Average for the years 1825-1830
Source: A1 (Compte général)
15 Infanticide Rank Infanticides per capita
Ranked ratio of number of infanticides to population-- Average for the years 1825-1830
Source: A1 (Compte général)
16 Donation_clergy Rank Donations to the clergy
Ranked ratios of the number of bequests and donations inter vivios to population-- Average for the years 1815-1824
Source: A1 (Bull. des lois, ordunn. d'autorisation)
17 Lottery Rank Per capita wager on Royal Lottery
Ranked ratio of the proceeds bet on the royal lottery to population--- Average for the years 1822-1826
Source: A1 (Compte rendus par le ministre des finances)
18 Desertion Rank Military desertion
Military disertion, ratio of the number of young soldiers accused of desertion to the force of the military contingent, minus the deficit produced by the insufficiency of available billets-- Average of the years 1825-1827.
Source: A1 (Compte du ministere du guerre, 1829 etat V)
19 Instruction Rank Instruction
Ranks recorded from Guerry's map of Instruction. Note: this is inversely related to literacy (as defined here)
20 Prostitutes Num Prostitutes in Paris
Number of prostitutes registered in Paris from 1816 to 1834, classified by the department of their birth
Source: Parent-Duchatelet (1836), De la prostitution en Paris
21 Distance Num Distance to Paris (km)
Distance of each department centroid to the centroid of the Seine (Paris)
Source: cakculated from department centroids
22 Area Num Area (1000 km^2)
Source: Angeville (1836)
23 Pop1831 Num 1831 population
Population in 1831, taken from Angeville (1836), Essai sur la Statistique de la Population français in 1000s