Cuban and Uruguayan life expectancy. Decomposing the differences between and within countries

Esther María León Díaz, Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas, Cuba
Victoria Prieto Rosas, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Madelín Gómez León, Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (CED)

Cuba and Uruguay are two of the most advanced Latin American countries in the Demographic Transition, standing out among the countries with the highest life expectancies in the region (77.9 and 75.7 for both sexes respectively in 2006). However, both countries have behaved differently in regard of this indicator´s trend. While the Uruguayan females have caught up the Cuban females´ survival, Cuban males have steadily shown an advantage in respect of Uruguayan males, who are still far from them. Which are the causes of death that explain the similarities observed among Cuban and Uruguayan females and the disparities between Cuban and Uruguayan males? Using age-specific causes of death we will explain the evolution of life expectancy at birth betwenn 1997 and 2005, and the sex gap in the life expectancy within each country for each year (1997 and 2005); the temporal changes for each sex in each country (1997-2005) and between countries by sex for the last year of the study, 2005. We will use the decomposition method to calculate the differences in life expectancy (Shkolnikov et al 2001). Vital Statistics data provided by the National Statistic Offices and the Public Health Ministries of both countries are used.