The Role of Place and Income in Life Expectancy Inequality: Evidence from Hungary

By Anikó Bíró, Tamás Hajdu, Gábor Kertesi and Dániel Prinz

Using mortality registers and administrative data on incomes and population, we develop new evidence on the magnitudes and sources of life expectancy inequality in Hungary. We document considerable inequality across geographies and income groups, and show that inequality has increased between 1991-2016. We show that avoidable deaths play a large role in life expectancy inequality. Income-related geographic inequalities in health behaviors, access to care and healthcare use are all strongly correlated with the inequality in life expectancy.

Data supplement and code: Data_mortality