The Relationship between Adult Mortality Rates and Education Attainment in Argentina

Hernan M. Manzelli, University of Texas at Austin

This paper describes and analyzes the effect of education on adult mortality levels in Argentina in the period 1991-2001. It focuses on the relation between specific mortality levels and education attainment. The data used are Argentinean Mortality Files for the years 1991 and 2001 and the 10% Public Microdata Sample (IPUMS) of the 1991 and 2001 Censuses for Argentina. Descriptive statistics are used for estimating the population and number of deaths by age, sex and education groups, and ratios are calculated for comparing the death rates by age, sex, and education groups. The findings show a strong and inverse relationship between education groups and mortality for adult males and females at both younger and older ages. During the analyzed period, for both sex, the ratio of the death rates between the group with the lowest level of education and the group with the highest education level showed a slight decline.