The conventional approach to gauging mortality convergence in Europe relies on life expectancy estimates () at the national level. However, mortality can differ within countries significantly. To better apprehend whether Europe's mortality patterns have been converging or diverging over recent decades, we must shift our focus to regional mortality data. Using data from statistical offices, we present annual estimates for 420 regions in 16 EU countries from 1995 to 2019. In our empirical analysis, we examined whether regions with initially high mortality levels caught up with low‐mortality regions, and we investigated changes in the standard deviation of Europe's regional distribution over time. Indeed, mortality variation has generally decreased from 1995 to 2019 due to larger gains in for regions with initially high mortality levels. The convergence phase took place mostly during the first half of the entire time period analyzed. Over more recent periods, however, we observe more heterogeneity in the development of . Some advantaged regions realized further gains in , even as improvements slowed for more disadvantaged regions. In conclusion, our analysis underscores the importance of addressing widening health inequalities. Policies should target disadvantaged regions to retard mortality divergence across Europe.

中文翻译：

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欧洲死亡率趋同？ 1995 年至 2019 年预期寿命增长的空间差异


衡量欧洲死亡率趋同的传统方法依赖于国家层面的预期寿命估计 ()。然而，各国之间的死亡率可能存在显着差异。为了更好地了解近几十年来欧洲的死亡率模式是趋同还是分化，我们必须将注意力转向区域死亡率数据。利用统计局的数据，我们对 16 个欧盟国家的 420 个地区从 1995 年到 2019 年进行了年度估计。在我们的实证分析中，我们研究了最初死亡率高的地区是否赶上了死亡率低的地区，并调查了死亡率的变化。欧洲区域分布随时间变化的标准差。事实上，从 1995 年到 2019 年，由于最初死亡率水平较高的地区死亡率变化较大，死亡率变化总体有所下降。收敛阶段主要发生在整个分析时间段的前半段。然而，在最近的时期，我们观察到 的发展存在更多异质性。一些优势地区实现了进一步的增长，尽管劣势地区的改善速度有所放缓。总之，我们的分析强调了解决日益扩大的健康不平等问题的重要性。政策应针对弱势地区，以减缓整个欧洲的死亡率差异。