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This article discusses différent aspects of migration and health in Swedish 19th century urban environments. The décliné in urban mortality set in during the last decades of the century, at the same time as Sweden rapidly became more urbani-zed. The relation between population increase and mortality was however not that clear. The article analyses mortality among migrants in comparison with the more permanently resident population in two Swedish towns-Sundsvall and Linköping. People with another origin than the town of Sundsvall had much better survival than the others. A possible explanation for this is that the migrants were brought up in a much healthier environment than those that spent their childhood in the urban environment, and that the better health in adulthood partly was a resuit of these long-term effects. For illegitimate children, however, their mother's back-ground as migrants had a negative effect. The unmarried migrant mother's lack of social network and support made the survival of their children low.