Tapani Valkonen
Pekka Martikainen
Jenni Blomgren

http://www.demographic-research.org/special/2/12/

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Abstract
This article analyses changes in marital status differences in mortality from approximately 1970 to 1995 among men and women aged 65-74 in ten developed countries (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, France, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden). Data were obtained from the United Nations Demographic Yearbooks and national statistical sources. According to the results there has been a trend towards increasing excess mortality among single men compared to married men and single, divorced and widowed women compared to married women in most western European countries and Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. This has been brought about by a more rapid decline in mortality among married persons and a slower decline or even an increase among non-married persons. In Japan the excess mortality of non-married men and women decreased.

Author's affiliation
Tapani Valkonen
University of Helsinki, Finland
Pekka Martikainen
University of Helsinki, Finland
Jenni Blomgren
National Public Health Institute, Finland

Keywords
developed countries, inequalities, marital status, mortality, mortality differences, old age, trends

Word count (Main text)
3914

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