Historical Development and Persistence of the Sex Gap in Life Expectancy in Estonia From the 19th to the 21st Century
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52024/hlcs25298Keywords:
Life expectancy, Mortality, Sex differences, Estonia, Eastern Europe, DecompositionAbstract
The pronounced male disadvantage in life expectancy in Eastern Europe since the 1970s is a well-established finding in mortality research. However, a longer-term perspective has been largely absent, despite extensive documentation of changes in the sex gap in life expectancy across several Western European countries. The first objective of this paper is to examine the evolution of the sex gap in life expectancy in Estonia from the 19th century onward and compare it to other European nations. The second aim is to analyse the contributions of age- and cause-specific mortality and their interaction using Arriaga decomposition. The results show that since the 19th century, life expectancy at birth for Estonian men has consistently been at least 10% lower than that of women, albeit with some temporal variation. This means that the sex gap in Estonia has remained wider than in Western European countries throughout this time and not merely since the 1970s. The age and cause of death contributions have shifted in line with the health transition. Notable divergences from Western European patterns reflect Estonia’s distinct socio-political trajectory.
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