Demography, Vo!. 25, No. 4, November 1988 The Current Differential in Black and White Life Expectancy Vema M. Keith Department of Sociology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843 David P. Smith School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas 77225 The 1980National Center for Health Statistics life tablesfor the U.S. blackand white populations reveal a difference in life expectancy of 7 years between black and white males and 6 years between black and white females. Using cause-substituted life tables, we show that a number of causes of death contribute to the difference. The largest contributors are cardiovascular disease for both sexes and homicide and cancer for males. Throughout the 20th century, black life expectancy in the United States has been substantially below that for whites. In 1900 the differential was 15 years at birth between non whites (principally blacks) and whites, at 33 and 48 years, respectively [National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), 1983]. With the control of infectious, parasitic, and diarrheal diseases in the first half of the century and the substantial progress that continues to be made against chronic diseases, life expectancies have increased dramatically, to 74 years for whites and 69 years for non whites in 1980. Black life expectancy, reported separately from total nonwhites in NCHS reports since 1960, is slightly lower, at 68 years in 1980 (NCHS, 1983; Reid, 1982). Despite the continued narrowing of black-white mortality differentials, extending across most major causes of death, blacks in 1980 are at the level of life expectancy attained by whites in the 1950s (Cooper et al., 1981; Tsai, Lee, and Kautz, 1982). Black males remain particularly disadvantaged, having a life expectancy in 1980 of 63.7 years, compared with 70.7 years for white males, 72.3 years for black females (whose life expectancies passed those of white males in 1970), and 78.1 years for white females (NCHS, 1983). At 1980 mortality rates, 45 percent of black male infants cannot expect to survive long enough to collect full Social Security benefits at age 65, compared with 28 percent of white males, 27 percent of black females, and 15 percent of white females. The figures indicate a serious inequity in the length, and almost certainly the quality, of life. The lower life expectancy among blacks results from higher black age-adjusted mortality for almost all leading causes of death, including in particular higher mortality for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and homicide [U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHHS), 1985]. These causes of death do not contribute equally, however, to life expectancy or to differentials in life expectancy. To distinguish between them, we need cause-substituted life table techniques that decompose life expectancy differences. Similar techniques are used to compare race/sex groups in terms of gains in life expectancy over time and to estimate the effects on life expectancy of reducing deaths from major causes (Tsai, Lee, and Hardy, 1978; Tsai, Lee, and Kautz, 1982). Copyright © 1988 Population ASSOCIation of America 625 Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article-pdf/25/4/625/907488/625keith.pdf by guest on 15 November 2022