Educational attainment and longevity are strongly related. Large population studies covering long periods to provide evidence of trends in educational inequalities regarding life expectancy are scarce though, especially prior to the 1980s. Our objective was to document changes in life expectancy by education in Norway in the period 1961-2009, and to determine whether the patterns differ between sexes. This is a register-based population study of all Norwegian residents over 34 years, with data from the National Central Population Registry and the National Education Database. For each calendar year during 1961-2009, death rates by 1 year age groups were calculated separately for each sex and three educational categories (primary, secondary and tertiary). Annual life tables were used to calculate life expectancy at age 35 (e ( 35 )) and survival probability for the three age-intervals 35-44, 45-64, and 65-90. All education groups increased their e ( 35 ) over time, but inequalities in e ( 35 ) between tertiary and primary educational categories widened 5.3 years for men and 3.2 years for women during the study period. The probability for women with primary education to survive to age 64 did not improve from 1961 to 2009. The gain in life expectancy lagged about 10 years in lower compared to higher education groups which might suggest that improvements in life sustaining factors reach different segments of the population at different times. The widening of the gap seems to have partly tapered off over the last two decades, and the changes in life expectancy should be followed carefully in the future to document the development.

Several studies have shown a positive relationship between mortality and episodes of income decline, unemployment, or poverty shortly before death or in the more distant past. Our objective was to analyse the mortality effects of earlier income changes more generally, net of the overall level. We used Norwegian register data that included individual histories of annual labour income and focused on mortality among men aged 50-69 in 1990-2002. Men in this age group who, during the preceding 15 years, had experienced at least two substantial falls in income as well as at least one substantial increase, or vice versa, experienced an excess mortality of 17 per cent. For men who experienced fewer changes, there were only weak indications of excess mortality. Variation dominated by falls in income did not have a more adverse effect than variation dominated by rises.

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