Invitation | 01.09.2025BiB Population Research Series
The BiB invites you to the lecture series on September 24 from 11:00 am to 12:15 pm. Prof. Roland Rau presents his paper “Why is life expectancy so high in Hong Kong?”.
Source: © ITMZ Uni Rostock
Roland Rau is Professor of Demography at the University of Rostock and Senior Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. He primarily analyzes adult mortality in developed countries, applying and developing methods at the intersection of demography, epidemiology and statistics.
Abstract
Hong Kong has the longest life expectancy globally. If poor data can be excluded, we ask whether this is driven by a direct effect or a compositional effect? The direct effects argument (Ni et al. 2021) emphasises low mortality from cardiovascular diseases and cancer as well as low smoking attributable mortality. In contrast, Chung and Marmot (2021) discussed a compositional explanation, citing ‘healthy and resilient’ older people having migrated from challenging social and economic circumstances in Mainland China in the mid-20th century. Using official mortality and census microdata we compare mortality among people who were born in Hong Kong and never moved away with people born in mainland China and moved to Hong Kong. We find that a cohort effect is, indeed, the main driver for Hong Kong’s phenomenal rise in life expectancy; but it is not due to persons born in mainland China as initially postulated.
Location
The event will take place on the 3rd floor of the BiB in presence and online as a Webex conference.
Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 4
65189 Wiesbaden, Germany
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Online Access
Link: https://destatis.webex.com/meet/bibprs
Meeting ID Number: 2731 430 1678
Join via phone
+49-619-6781-9736
Access code: 2734 685 1551
Background
In our BiB Population Research Series, we address current topics in population research and in related disciplines. Scientists from Germany and abroad present results from their research work in English.