The gender mortality differentials in China since the 1980s

Qiang Ren, Peking University
Xiaoying Zheng, Mahidol University
Guiying Cao, International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA)

This paper is concerned with the trends of sex mortality differentials in China since the 1980s and contributions to the sex differentials in life expectancy at birth due to the gender differentials in age-specific mortality rates, and compares such kinds of contributions of cause-of-death under decomposition method. In the past two decades in China, the gap of life expectancy at birth between female and male had been continuing to be widened. Major reasons were of the contributions of sex differences in age-specific mortality rates and their changes, particularly for the population aged 45+. We also examine cause-of-death contributions to the sex gap of life expectancy at birth with broad categories of age between 1989 and 2000, and find that sex disparities in mortality rates due to malignant neoplasms, circulatory diseases, accidents and violence account for most of the total sex differences, and represent their individual characters in age groups.