General considerations about multiple decrement life tables are made to evaluate the impact of some diseases and other causes of death on the probabilities of death and survival and on the life expectancy of the inhabitants of the City of S. Paulo, Brazil, in 1970. The male life expectancy calculated was 60.12 years, and the female, 67.21. The main groups of causes of death, classified by the gains, were: for males - cardiovascular diseases, infectious and parasitic diseases, accidents, poisonings and violences and neoplasms; for women - cardiovascular diseases, infectious and parasitic diseases, neoplasms and accidents, poisonings, and violence. A dichotomous population could be considered as an explanatory hypothesis for the pattern of mortality prevailling in 1970 in S. Paulo; that is, the patterns probably reflect the health problems of under developed countries as well as those of developed countries.
Mortality; Survival; Life expectancy