Abstract

This article presents measures of differential mortality in Italy by educational level. The results refer to the year 2001 because the census is the only source providing data about population by level of education; mortality data are based on statistics concerning death certificates. A logit relational method was used to build life tables according to levels of education. Particular attention was given to expectation of life for 35/65-year-old people. At age 35 the expectation of life for a person with a low level of education is about 7.5 years lower than for a highly educated person in the case of males, and 6.5 lower among females. At age 65 the expectation for those with a lower level of education is onequarter lower among males and one-fifth lower among females.