Analyzing emerging patterns of mortality through lifespan inequalities on a global scale

Most countries experienced major increases in life expectancy in the second half of the 20th century.

This progress has meant that people are living longer on average and, at the same time, ages at death have become compressed to a narrow band of ages within populations.

In other words, ages at death have become more similar, or lifespan inequality has decreased as populations live longer.

The research I propose is driven by three major objectives: 1) Pioneer a powerful, theory-based methodology to analyze how age-specific patterns of mortality drive changes in life expectancy and lifespan inequality (variation in age at death), 2) Apply these methods to analyze recent patterns of life expectancy and lifespan inequality in low mortality countries, including Europe, and 3) Expand terms of discourse about the effects of violence on population health by analyzing a neglected perspective, namely lifespan inequality in contexts of high violence by sex.

The data used in this project come from open-access databases, including the Human Mortality Database, the Global Burden of Disease, and the Global Peace Index.

This project is timely because recent trends in several countries indicate that continued improvements in longevity are not inevitable, with stalls in life expectancy occurring in some low mortality countries, such as the UK and USA, and increasing premature mortality resulting from violence in contexts such as Latin America and Middle East.

These recent dynamics indicate increasing complexity underpinning population health improvements and highlight the need to analyze population health through the lens of lifespan inequality.

This has significant implications for policy, as it reveals emerging forms of inequalities that highlight the importance of adopting inequality-based metrics for evaluating population health around the globe.