Trends of mortality in European Mediterranean countries

Juan M. Garcia Gonzalez, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)
Rosa Gomez-Redondo, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

Population ageing European countries around the Mediterranean sea has been a process characterized by a different pace in each case. France, Italy and Spain have followed an exponential pattern, whereas Greece and Portugal have followed a slower pace. This paper tries to do a comparison of the compression and rectangularization processes of mortality, as well as the trends of mortality of people at advanced ages –85 or more years old- and people at very advanced ages –100 or more years old- among the European Countries mentioned above –France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece-. We stress our attention mainly in the last 40 years. The period 1970-2008 has been the one when population ageing has reached its maximum level. The consequences have been transferred readily into the public, social and demographic spheres.