Age patterns and sex differentials in mortality

This chapter examines age-sex-specific mortality between 1950 and 2015 in 51 Asian countries and territories. The pace of mortality decline is closely related to initial mortality level. Before life expectancy at birth (e 0 ) reaches approximately 70 years, there is a negative and almost linear relationship between initial e 0 and the gain in e 0 ; longevity improvements are dominated by contributions attributable to mortality reductions under age 15. At lower mortality levels, mortality decline in the older ages plays an increasingly important role in the e 0 gain. The longevity improvements and shifts in the age patterns of mortality change have taken place in both sexes, but the improvements are generally smaller for males, leading to a larger male deficit in longevity at lower mortality levels. Moreover, clusters of populations have experienced mortality decline faster or slower than expected from initial mortality level. A dozen populations in Eastern, South-Eastern and Western Asia have achieved very low mortality by world standards, whereas two regional clusters lagged behind, one in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and the other in Southern and South-Eastern Asia. The temporal persistence and geo-cultural clustering of the disadvantages point to environmental and systemic socioeconomic factors that hinder mortality decline.