Volume 25 - Article 8 | Pages 285–310  

Gender differences in social mortality differentials in Switzerland (1990-2005)

By Reto Schumacher, Sarah Vilpert

Abstract

Using data from the 1990 and 2000 Swiss Federal Censuses linked to the death records of the years 1990-1995 and 2000-2005, this paper investigates gender differences in mortality differentials by level of educational achievement and by marital status. In both periods, the differential by level of education is clearly more pronounced among men, but the difference in the educational gradient between men and women decreases between the two periods of observation. Health behavior might contribute to the gender difference in the educational mortality gradient, but it is probably not the main reason for this finding. The mortality differential by marital status is also stronger in men, but the difference between men and women narrows over time. Our analysis also shows that gender differences in the mortality differential by marital status almost disappear when gender differences in population composition by level of education, nationality, employment status, and housing situation are taken into account.

Author's Affiliation

• Reto Schumacher - Statistique Vaud (Service Cantonal de Recherche et d'Informations Statistiques [SCRIS]), Switzerland EMAIL
• Sarah Vilpert - Observatoire Suisse de la Santé (Obsan), Switzerland EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Changing gender relations, declining fertility? An analysis of childbearing trajectories in 19th-century Netherlands
Volume 41 - Article 30

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