Mortality rates in England & Wales, as in other countries,
are consistently lower for married people than for never-married
(i.e. single) or previously married individuals. This is
usually attributed to a combination of protective
and selective effects. For example, marriage may
protect individuals by providing them with healthier lifestyles,
but it may also be the case that healthy people are more
likely to marry or remarry than those with health problems.
Mortality differentials by marital status have changed
little in England & Wales in recent years, with all
non-married statuses continuing to experience higher mortality
than the married population. There does, however, seem to
be some evidence of a relative worsening for non-married
people in some age/status groups, for example 35-49 year
old divorced males. But, generally where there have been
changes, they are small and/or at ages where mortality is
low. It has therefore been assumed that current mortality
differentials by marital status will remain constant throughout
the projection.
However, although differentials are assumed to remain constant,
the projections are subject to the overall constraint that
all status mortality levels must be consistent with the
2003-based national projections. So mortality rates for
each marital status are therefore effectively assumed to
fall in line with the decline assumed for overall mortality
in the national projections.
Click here
for graphs comparing mortality differentials in 1991 and
2001. In these graphs mortality rates for never-married,
divorced and widowed people are shown relative to those
for the married population. A value of over 100 indicates
that the mortality rate for that group was higher than the
rate for married people of the same age, while a value of
under 100 would indicate that mortality was lower than for
the equivalent married group.
Variant marital status projections
Variant marital status projections have also been carried
out based on alternative assumptions about the future levels
of marriage and divorce. They make the same assumptions
about future mortality as the principal marital status projections.
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