Vol. 5, Issue 4, Part H (2019)

Abstract
The rate of mortality increases almost exponentially with age through most of the adult age range in human populations. However, the rate of mortality increase with age tends to slow down at older ages and evidences of this deceleration encouraged the researchers to switch from the exponential to the logistic power function in which the rate of mortality increase slows down with advancing age. The present study is an attempt to examine whether there exist any evidence of deceleration in the age pattern of mortality at older ages in general and for males and females separately in the state of Kerala in India. An attempt has also been made to compare the phenomenon of mortality deceleration at older ages in Kerala with that in India. Death rates for the elderly by age and sex during 1997-2016, taken at five year intervals, from the SRS of India were analysed using Life Table Ageing Rate (LAR) technique.