Angus deaton

I.   Mortality and Morbidity in the United States  

and Other Rich Countries

We begin by dissecting changes in mortality and morbidity over space and 

across age, sex, race, and education. This provides a set of facts to be 

matched against potential explanations for the epidemic.

I.A.  Documenting Mortality

Increasing midlife white mortality rates, particularly for whites with 

no more than a high school degree, stand in contrast to mortality declines 

observed for other ethnic and racial groups in the United States, and those 

observed in other wealthy countries. Figure 1 shows mortality rates per 

100,000 for men and women (combined) age 50–54 from 1999 to 2015. 

We show separate mortality rates for black non-Hispanics (BNHs), for 

Hispanics, and for all WNHs, as well as for the subset of WNHs with no 

more than a high school degree. The top line shows rapid mortality decline 

for blacks, while the bottom line shows that Hispanics continue to make 

progress against mortality at a rate of improvement that, as we shall see,