Age Components of the Best Life Expectancies

Jacques Vallin, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
France Meslé, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

Oeppen and Vaupel showed that the best life expectancy observed in a given year has increased linearly from 1840 up to now. However, life expectancy has increased as the result of the decline in mortality at different ages, the weight of which has changed dramatically over time. What are the trends in the lowest age-specific mortality rates? Do they follow a straightforward pattern? HMD data will be enriched by other life tables collected by INED and MPIDR. To select significant large age groups, the difference between life expectancy at birth of the best-performing country and the mean life expectancy of the other countries will be broken down according to the weight of each age, around 1850, 1900, 1950, and 2000. For each significant large group, trends in lowest mortality rates or highest life expectancies will be analysed. The results could provide pointers for imagining possible retropolations and extrapolations for the Oeppen-Vaupel line.