Vývoj střední délky života obyvatel České republiky v letech 1960-2008

The goal of this elaboration is to point out changes in mortality that were responsible for longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality. The trend of basic indicators that contributed to changes in mortality was assessed based on the time series data available on the website of Czech Statistical Office. The life expectancy paradox and the necessary level of birth rate and life expectancy to maintain level of simple reproduction was calculated based on the trend of life expectancy in selected age groups of men and women, infant mortality coefficient and actual birth rate in the Czech Republic during 1920-2008. The elaboration describes in detail the indicators and methods of calculating mortality and pays special attention to life tables and possible ways of flattening mortality rate curves. It also compares life expectancy and healthy life years in the Czech Republic and European countries and describes the term of healthy life years and the most common way of their calculation. In all monitored countries, women's expectation of life at birth is longer than that of men. In the Czech Republic, the difference is now about six years. Life expectancy in all countries keeps going up, with the exception of e.g. the countries of the former Soviet Union where life expectancy has been fluctuating for the past 20 years. Individual countries are compared based on data from the Eurostat database and Human Mortality Database. The annex shows methods of calculating life tables and possible ways of flattening mortality rate curves and provides an overview of the most common models of flattening and extrapolating mortality rate curves. The elaboration also has an index of used terms and a Czech-English vocabulary.