The rythm of the decline in death rate of the elderly in the southeastern states of Brazil, 1980-2000

Abstract

In Brazil the speed of the aging process of the population has increased dramatically, especiallyin the Southeastern Region. This process was first influenced mostly by lower fertility rates, but as this trend consolidates, the decrease in death rates among people aged 60 years and over also becomes crucial for the increase in the aging of the population. This article shows that the pace of the decline in mortality among the elderly in the Brazilian southeastern states was not homogeneous from 1980 to 2000. However, from the 1980s to the 1990s the reductions in mortality for people between 60 and 89 are very significant (above 2.2 per cent per year for men and 2.8 per cent per year for women). Focusing on the age groups separately, it was seen than for the younger elderly groups. Therefore, the mortality of the elderly in the Southeast in the 1980s and 1990s was far from a final biological limit (if this exists) where future reductions would be unlikely.