Spatial Gender Differences in Life Expectancy at Birth
Spatial Gender Differences in Life Expectancy at Birth

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the spatial gender differences of life expectancy at birth in Hungary using the most recent data available. The estimation of life expectancies is based on modified version of Chiang’s method which was calculated by the author. We experienced much larger differences amongst men than women. Our empirical result corresponds to the conventional experience. The range regarding men was 9.5 years and 6 years for women. Both values refer to enormous large spatial disparities. Nonetheless the strength of relationship between genders, based on a simple correlation coefficient was very high (r=0,83). It implies that genders are good predictors to one another. The exploration of spatial pattern of life expectancy is based on well-known global and local spatial autocorrelation tests. It has been found that the global spatial autocorrelations are somewhat larger for men than for women. However the differences are not remarkable. Not surprisingly the local patterns were very similar as well. Minor differences were found regarding the extent of local clusters. Areas with high life expectancies can be found in the central region, especially in the capital and its sorrounding zones, and Western Transdanubia region. The areas with the lowest life expectancy lie in South Western and North-Eastern regions of the country. Finally we attempted to partition areas according to women’s life expectancy and gender differences. We used k-means cluster method and silhouette coefficient (SC) to classify proper cluster structure. Because of the above mentioned strong relationship we could define only two clusters. SC value was more than 0.5. We experienced that, where the life expectancy was high or relatively high the gender differences were significantly smaller.

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