Sex differentials in mortality in Sri Lanka: changes since the 1920s

In Sri Lanka in the 1920s female mortality exceeded male mortality in almost all age groups: only in infancy and late middle age did male mortality exceed female mortality. Proportionately the greatest female excess was in the childbearing ages. Mortality fell very substantially between 1921 and 1971. However, throughout most of this period the same basic pattern of sex differentials persisted; indeed, between 1921 and 1953 the relative position of women worsened in a number of age groups. Although the original pattern still showed clearly in 1963, by 1971 male mortality exceeded female mortality in almost all age groups: excess female mortality was only found among children. It is possible that discriminatory behaviour played an important part in excess female mortality in Sri Lanka in the past.