Monitoring of trends in socioeconomic inequalities in mortality

This paper presents estimates of changes in socioeconomic inequalities in mortality between the 1980s and the 1990s in nine European countries. The best available evidence shows that relative inequalities in mortality generally widened, while the absolute gap remains about the same. However, the pace of change varied greatly, both between countries and within countries (by age and sex). Additional analyses of specific countries illustrated that data problems can often impede an accurate and detailed assessment of change in inequalities in mortality. These illustrations stressed the importance of evaluating methodological problems, and they point to the urgent need for further development of data sources.