The development of mortality in Western European countries and former Eastern Bloc countries

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to analyse and compare the development of mortality in Western European countries and former Eastern Bloc countries from 1960 to 2013. The theoretical part describes basic indicators of mortality and algorithm for calculation of complete life tables. Age-specific death rates which are part of the life tables were equalized by using moving averages and Gompertz-Makeham function. The practical part of this thesis focuses on comparing selected countries in terms of development of infant mortality rate without distinction of sex. However, the development of infant mortality rate is also traced separately for boys and for girls here thanks to which we can watch changes in the trend of male's excess mortality. This thesis also includes comparison of life expectancy development at birth and life expectancy at higher ages in individual countries and finds out the influence of the communist regime on selected demographic indicators