Complete life table for the population of Slovenia, 2007

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For a boy born in Slovenia in 2007 the life expectancy at birth was 74.6 years while for a girl it was 81.8 years. Compared to the previous life table presenting the 2000‑2002 period, the life expectancy at birth has increased by 2.3 years for boys and by 1.6 years for girls. Thus the difference in life expectancy at birth between males and females, which is in Slovenia above the average in comparison with the other developed countries, has decreased somehow.

If during the individual’s lifetime the mortality remained unchanged at the level from 2007, a half of the men would live until the age of 77 years and a half of the women would live until the age of 84 years. In the previous life table those values were 75 years for men and 83 years for women, respectively (Chart 1).

Because of the rapidly changing demographic structure and population ageing, also the life expectancy of people aged 65 years is becoming increasingly relevant. This is the demographic boundary between elderly population and working‑age population, while in economic terms it is also a boundary between pensioners and active population. Life expectancy at that age has increased from 14.4 years (in the 2000‑2002 period) to 15.8 years (in 2007) for men and from 18.9 years to 19.9 years for women. For Slovenia having low retirement age the life expectancy at age of 60 years might be more relevant for the economic analyses. At this age the increase was from 17.8 to 19.4 for men and from 23.1 to 24.2 for women.

In the observed year the life expectancy in Slovenia was continuously decreasing, which is a common feature of developed countries. Because of fairly low mortality until abut the age of 60, the graphically presented life expectancy has more or less a linear shape and it only bends in the higher age groups (Chart 2).

That is also evident from probabilities of dying. In the higher age groups mortality rates increase strongly, therefore a logarithmic scale is used. Infant mortality is characterised by higher level due to biological reasons. Also the infant mortality in Slovenia in 2007 was higher, however, still among the lowest worldwide. The mortality in the ages between 1 and 15 years of age is very low. For boys in the age of about 10 years the values of probability of dying are especially low due to the random effect. In most of those age groups there were no male deaths in Slovenia in 2007, which explains the presented negative declination. The values of the probabilities of dying increase sharply at about 15 years of age, which is predominantly related to traffic accidents. Among the men this factor is more distinctive than among women. In late 30s mortality starts to increase because of biological factors. Their impact is becoming increasingly important with age (Chart 3).

Methodology of computation

This time the method of partial probabilities of dying that rests on the data from one calendar year only was used. For reducing the random effect, the smoothing method was implemented. The “Cubic smoothing spline” method in the “Spline toolbox” of the MATLAB 7.7 software was used. Despite the selected method being the most commonly used, it is only one of the several possible methods of smoothing. Therefore, the life table also shows crude probabilities of dying.

Prepared by: Jože Sambt, M. Sc., Uršula Iljaš Petrovič

• Complete life table for the population of Slovenia, 2007, 62kB
• METHODOLOGY, 77kB