The ‘urban penalty’, i.e. higher urban mortality compared with the countryside, existed at a national level in Sweden until the twentieth century. However, at a regional and local level, the urban-rural dichotomy was less true. In three countryside parishes in 1750-1859, three different patterns emerge. Socioeconomic and geographical factors defined life chances from cradle to grave. In a suburban parish, in a cohort born in the 1790s, about half of the females died before they were 30 years old and half of the males died before they were 20! This example is at the worse end of the scale with survival rates below the Swedish average – but it is not unique. In contrast, among those born during the same decade in a forest parish, about half of the females lived until they were 60 years old and half of the males were still alive at the age of 50! This second example is at the positive end with survival rates much better than the Swedish average. A third example, an iron foundry, had low infant mortality but high adult mortality, resulting in survival rates close to the Swedish average.