Rate of decline of mortality over age 60 in south-eastern Brazil, 1980-2000

Nelson Otávio Beltrão Campos Campos, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional (CEDEPLAR)
Roberto Rodrigues, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais

In Brazil, the speed of the aging process of the population has increased dramatically, especially in the Southeast Region. At first, this process is influenced by the reduction in the level of fertility, but as this tendency consolidates, the decrease in the mortality rates among people aged 60 years and more also becomes crucial for the increase in the population aging.This paper show that the pace of the decline in the mortality of the elderly in the Brazilian southeastern states did not present a homogeneous standard from 1980 to 2000. However, from the 80’s to the 90’s the observed reductions in mortality for people aged between 60 and 89 years are very important (above 2,2%, for men, and 2.8%, for women). Focusing on the age groups separately, it was found that such reductions, for almost all the period, have been more expressive for octogenarians than for younger elderly. Therefore, the mortality of the elderly in the southeast in the 80’s and 90’s fell far of being converged to a biological limit (if it exists) where future reductions would be difficult.