Growing Old Together? The Sex Gap in Population Ageing

Tabitha Scott, School of Demography- Australian National University
Vladimir Canudas-Romo, Australian National University

Population ageing is one of the most significant population phenomena of this century. Across time and populations, females are, on average, older than males, a trend that is underexplored in the literature. This study presents the sex gap in population ageing, measured with the population mean age, and seeks to understand how it is related to sex differences in mortality. A new novel measure of the age distribution of mortality is presented, termed the ‘life table mean age’. The sex gap in the life table mean age is then compared with the sex gap in the population mean age, revealing a very similar time trend. Further, age-specific decomposition of the population mean age and life table mean age reveal that it is largely sex differences above the age of 60 that produce the sex gap in both means. Looking at the variable-r decomposition of changes in the population mean age shows that historical changes in survivorship are the main contributor in most studied populations. This study contributes to the literature by showing that the sex gap in population ageing can be accounted for by sex differences in mortality at older ages.

Keywords: Population Ageing, Mathematical demography , Mortality and Longevity, Decomposition analysis

See paper.