Inequality in Life Spans and Mortality Convergence Across Industrialized Countries

The second half of the twentieth century witnessed much convergence in life expectancy around the world. Closer inspection of mortality trends in advanced countries reveals that inequality in adult life spans, which we measure with the standard deviation of ages at death above age 10, S10, is increasingly responsible for the remaining divergence in mortality. We report striking differences in level and trend of S10 across industrialized countries since 1960, which cannot be explained by aggregate socioeconomic inequality or differential externalcause mortality. Rather, S10 reflects both within and between-group inequalities in life spans and conveys new information about their combined magnitudes and trends. These findings suggest that the challenge for health policies in this century is to reduce inequality, not