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Dynamic Demographic Analysis pp 69–89Cite as

Changing Mortality Patterns and Their Predictability: The Case of the United States

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Part of the book series: The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis ((PSDE,volume 39))

Abstract

Forecasting U.S. mortality is challenging due to its irregular development. Since the 1990s, men have experienced stronger increases in life expectancy than women. Prospective forecasts up to 2050 generated using the Lee-Carter model and three of its variants illustrate that an extrapolation of this trend involves not just the risk of forecasting only moderate gains in life expectancy, but also the risk of forecasting that men will outlive women in the long run. Jointly forecasting mortality trends of multiple (sub)populations appears to be the key to averting such implausible developments in the model of Hyndman et al. and in our model. Since we also (1) forecast the rates of mortality improvement (to catch dynamic age shifts in survival improvement) and (2) select reference countries in terms of their (a) overall level of mortality, (b) risk factor attributable mortality, and/or (c) cultural and political proximity, our model can also forecast long-term trend changes and accelerating increases in life expectancy.

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Acknowledgments

The European Research Council has provided financial support under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement no. 263744.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Demography, University of Rostock, Ulmenstrasse 69, 18057, Rostock, Germany

    Christina Bohk & Roland Rau

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  1. Christina Bohk
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  2. Roland Rau
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Correspondence to Roland Rau .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University Population Research Institute, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Robert Schoen

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Bohk, C., Rau, R. (2016). Changing Mortality Patterns and Their Predictability: The Case of the United States. In: Schoen, R. (eds) Dynamic Demographic Analysis. The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, vol 39. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26603-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26603-9_5

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