Gini-Type Index for Ageing/Rejuvenating Populations

TL;DR

This paper introduces the Gini-Type Index (GTI), a simple statistical tool that uses single-year data to assess whether populations are aging or rejuvenating, demonstrated through Australian mortality data from 1921 and 2009.

Contribution

The paper proposes a novel application of the Gini-Type Index for analyzing population aging and rejuvenation using minimal data, contrasting with traditional median and mean-based methods.

Findings

GTI effectively identifies population aging or rejuvenation from snapshot data.

Application to Australian data shows clear aging trends in 1921 and rejuvenation in 2009.

GTI provides a practical alternative for demographic analysis with limited data.

Abstract

Application of some basic notions and statistics of ageing distributions used in mathematical theory of reliability including the Gini-type index is discussed as a methodological tool for investigation of human population ageing and longevity. In opposite to the traditionally used median and mean lifetime, the GTI requires only one calendar year snap-shot data to reveal the population ageing or rejuvenating. The case study illustrating the suggested techniques is based on the Australia 1921 and Australia 2009 mortality data from the Human Mortality Database (http://www.mortality.org)