Demographic Analysis of the Sex Moratlity Differences

Abstract

According to WHO estimates for 2015, women lived longer than men in all countries of the world. The phenomenon of lower female mortality rates in countries with a long tradition of mortality statistics has been present for several centuries. The paper presents an overview of European trends in the changes of sex differences in mortality, especailly in Serbia. During the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, a different pattern of mortality by sex was detected among countries. The complexity of the phenomenon and the factors that condition the difference have a unique relationship so that even neighboring countries often do not share a uniform pattern of mortality by sex. In the second half of the 20th century in some countries, difference increased, in others decreased, while in some countries it practically stagnated. In Serbia, the changes were modest, and the difference did not change significantly over the past five decades. In the mid-20th century, the differential in sex mortality rate in Serbia was among the lowest in Europe, and now it belongs to the group of countries with moderately low differences. The different mortality of men and women implies many social and demographic consequences. The feminization of the old population in Serbia due to the lower mortality rates of the female population results in a different burden of the diseases, and causes of death in the total population.

Keywords

• Mortality
• sex mortality differences
• European trends
• Serbia