One Hundred Years of Mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Fragile Path from Hunger to Longevity

Alberto Palloni, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Guido Pinto, University of Wisconsin at Madison

We use a new set of life tables to characterize the mortality experience of Latin American countries during the period 1900-2000. We describe the procedures applied to estimate these life tables, construct models of mortality that capture the diversity of experiences during the period 1950-2000, and then use these models to estimate life tables for the period 1900-1950. We also examine the relation between early childhood and adult mortality through the century, estimate patterns of old age mortality to evaluate the march toward longevity, and assess the magnitude of the contribution that the mortality decline experienced in 1930-1970 will have on the growth of the elderly (60+) population during the period 1990-2030.