Lexis

This book explores the life of economist and social scientist Wilhelm Lexis and the key demographic instrument named after him: the Lexis diagram. It describes this vital tool, which helps demographers visualize data, and examines its various forms through a specially designed example.

“Basic Lexis” is a series of English video lessons by English Club TV Channel designed for beginners. In each episode native English speaker lists around 10 words related to certain topics. The lessons are accompanied by appropriate pictures and videos, which demonstrate the usage of words in specific situations. The presenter says each word clearly, so that viewers learn its pronunciation too. After each lesson viewers have to pass some tests related to the lesson. This helps them check themselves to understand, how well they have learnt the new words.

This book visualizes mortality dynamics in the Lexis diagram. While the standard approach of plotting death rates is also covered, the focus in this book is on the depiction of rates of mortality improvement over age and time. This rather novel approach offers a more intuitive understanding of the underlying dynamics, enabling readers to better understand whether period- or cohort-effects were instrumental for the development of mortality in a particular country. Besides maps for single countries, the book includes maps on the dynamics of selected causes of death in the United States, such as cardiovascular diseases or lung cancer.