Mortality Estimates and Construction of Life Tables for Small Areas in Brazil, 2010

Flávio Henrique M. de A. Freire, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
Bernardo L. Queiroz, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Marcos Gonzaga, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
Felipe Souza, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

There is an increase demand for small area demographic estimates, but in developing countries, those estimates are limited by data quality. In this paper, we study the quality of mortality data for small areas in Brazil and produce estimates of life tables for all municipalities in 2010. We follow a multiple step approach to produce the estimates. We first use DDM to analyze the quality of mortality data and estimate adult mortality levels for microregions in Brazil. We then combine DDM with empirical bayes approach to produce mortality estimates and complete life tables for small areas. We find that the quality of mortality data in Brazil and regions is improving over time. A large part of the country shows almost complete coverage of death counts. We also estimate mortality levels for all municipalities in Brazil in 2010, over 5000 estimates, and observed the existence of clear regional spatial patterns of mortality and different mortality levels.