Old-age mortality in Israel: Analysis of variation and change

Inequalities in longevity across population subgroups characterize every society. This study analyzes such differentials inlife expectancy and cause-specific death rates among the elderly Jewish population in Israel. It covers a period of five years around the 1983 census, with comparisons to a similar period around the 1972 census. The analysis is restricted to the Jewish population because the socio-economic and cultural characteristics, as well as the quality of data, differ greatly between the Jewish and the Arab populations. Indeed, the quality of vital records as well as census data of the Arab population is problematic and raises difficulties both in analysis and in interpretation.