Changes in educational differentials in old-age mortality in Finland and Sweden between 1971-1975 and 1996-2000

The majority of the studies on developed countries confirm that socioeconomic mortality inequalities have been persisting or even widening. It has also been suggested that inequalities have been becoming increasingly important for old ages. The vast majority of the findings on mortality differentials rely on life table or aggregated mortality measures. However, conventional mean lifespan (life expectancy) hides important characteristics of the distribution of lifespan. Modal age at death and measures of disparity provide additional important insights on longevity, especially when focusing on mortality and survival at old ages. In this paper, using high quality census-linked data and both conventional life expectancy and distribution of life span measures, we systematically assess the direction and magnitude of changes in mortality differences at old ages in Sweden and Finland over the period 1971 to 2000. We found that educational gap in life expectancy at age 65 increased in both countries. Although the results suggest that life expectancy gap was largely explained by differential mortality due to cardiovascular system diseases, the role of other causes of death (especially cancers) has also increased. The educational gap in the modal age at death for Swedish males and Finnish females decreased, whereas it remained at the same level or slightly increased for Finnish males and Swedish females. Life span disparity was initially lower in low education groups, but eventually became higher than in high education group.