Regional Life Expectancy in Russia 1996-2019 – A Preston Curve and Convergence Clubs

Russian regional life expectancy at birth is shown to improve 1996-2019 using the average life expectancy as well as by gender with the extremely high gender gap decreasing. Life expectancy at the traditional retirement age also increases using a broad measure of economic development (Human Development Index) but not with a narrow measure (per capita real GRP). Regional female life expectancy except for a few outlier regions such as Moscow city converges over time while regional male life expectancy forms two convergence clubs with one converging at a much higher speed than the other indicating that the extremely low male life expectancy in Russia is more heterogeneous than female life expectancy.