MORTALITY TRENDS

• Trends in national mortality rates •  

Graphs showing time trends in mortality rates

All-cause mortality at age 35-69 years in

Sweden: 1750-2007

Graph showing all-cause mortality at age 35-69 years in Sweden since 1750

Colours: The coloured diamonds represent Swedish males (blue) and females (red); for comparison, the light grey curves represent males (generally the upper grey curve) and females (generally the lower) in England & Wales.

Comment: The general increase in mortality between 1750 and 1850 is likely not to have been real, but rather, an artefact caused by steadily improving enumeration of deaths during that period, especially for deaths among people who were nearing old age (eg, at age 60-69 years).

Method: Mortality rates were downloaded from the Human Mortality Database (see www.mortality.org or www.humanmortality.de) on 4 December 2009. The plotted lines connect unsmoothed values.

WHO mortality rates for particular countries, ages and causes of death