section_path: Regional history/Europe/17th century
section_name: 17th century
paragraph_text: 17th century
  
  The years around 1620 saw another period of famine sweep across Europe. These famines were generally less severe than the famines of twenty-five years earlier, but they were nonetheless quite serious in many areas. Perhaps the worst famine since 1600, the great famine in Finland in 1696, killed one-third of the population.
  
  Devastating harvest failures afflicted the northern Italian economy from 1618 to 1621, and it did not recover fully for centuries. There were serious famines in the late-1640s and less severe ones in the 1670s throughout northern Italy.
  
  Over two million people died in two famines in France between 1693 and 1710. Both famines were made worse by ongoing wars.
  
  As late as the 1690s, Scotland experienced famine which reduced the population of parts of Scotland by at least 15%.
  
  The Great Famine of 1695–1697 may have killed a third of the Finnish population. and roughly 10% of Norway 's population. Death rates rose in Scandinavia between 1740 and 1800 as the result of a series of crop failures. For instance, the Finnish famine of 1866–1868 killed 15% of the population.