[Development of mortality in western and eastern Germany since 1991]

At the beginning of the 1990s, life expectancy was clearly higher in the western part of Germany than in the eastern part (life table 1991/93, difference in life expectancy of newborn boys 3.25 years, girls 2.3 years). Since then the life expectancy has increased in western and eastern Germany differently. Despite a harmonization, differences still exist (life table 1997/99: boys 1.8 years, girls 0.8 years). Based on age-specific mortality rates, the decrease of mortality between 1991 and 1999 was particularly strong in the group of 25- to 35-year-old persons in eastern Germany as well as in the group of 30- to 35-year-old persons in western Germany. The largest differences in mortality - based on the probabilities of death in 1997/99 - are evident in the group of 18-year-old men and women as well as in the group of men between 35 and 44 years. At present women in eastern Germany show a lower mortality in some age groups than in western Germany.