Share of smallpox deaths per age group in pre-vaccination Kilmarnock 1728-1763

According to reports from Kilmarnock, Scotland, in the eighteenth century, smallpox claimed the lives of 622* people between 1728 and 1763. The reports show us that almost 95 percent of these deaths were recorded among infants and children below the age of six years, and roughly two thirds of all smallpox deaths were recorded among those aged below three years. The disproportion between adult and child deaths due to smallpox was not unique to Kilmarnock at this time, as studies from Sweden and Switzerland show similar results; these studies and comparisons can be used to highlight the important role that vaccination has played in lowering the the infant and child mortality rates across Europe.