The Final Inequality: Variance at Age of Death

There has been great interest in one dimension of mortality change, aggregate human life expectancy. I focus on a distinct dimension, the variance in the age at adult death. I explain why this measure matters, discuss historical trends in this variance, and compare trends across countries. I discuss the relationship between the pattern of adult death and socioeconomic inequalities, in factors such as education and income, using data from the US. Finally I examine the sources of variance in the context of models of the life cycle.