Rectangularization process in cohort mortality data: Analysis focused on the difference between post-communist and other European countries

Mortality analysis seen from the cohort perspective is in demography often associated with purer and more adequate way of study of mortality changes and mortality development. Cohort mortality is more stable in time and reflects the mortality conditions during the whole life of the generation. Unfortunately, traditionally the complete cohort life tables could be calculated only for cohorts which are already extinct. In this paper a simple method of mortality estimation is applied for cohorts which are not yet extinct. This method was developed in previous research steps of the author. Through application of this estimation method the intensity of mortality of adults will be calculated and then analyzed in connection to the concept of rectangularization of the survival curve or compression of mortality. According to the assumptions, the verification of this concept could be taken as a proof of the existence of a limit of the human life span. Analysis of this process is applied to the empirical as well as modeled cohort data from several selected European countries. The differences between post-communist and other European countries will be traced and described with the aim of finding some more general patterns and regularities usable for example in population forecasting.