Forty Years after the War: Demographic Profile and Mortality of the Malvinas Combatants

Abstract

The Malvinas War in 1982 was the last military conflict involving a country from the Southern Cone and stands among the most significant events in Argentina’s political and cultural history. However, more than forty years later, the demographic profile of Argentine combatants and their differential mortality patterns remain largely unknown. The general demographic profile (age, sex, province of birth, and average kinship structure) and the differential mortality risk of Argentine combatants during and after the Malvinas War are described. The analysis draws on the official list of combatants (23,572 individuals), complemented with administrative records and information from specialized websites. We conducted a descriptive analysis on the demographic characteristics of the combatants at the onset of the conflict, we examined the survival curves of the largest cohorts, and we estimated the average kinship structure of dead soldiers and veterans. At the time of the war, combatants were almost entirely male, with an average age of 24 years. During the 74 days of the conflict, 649 individuals died, and as of June 2023, 5,604 deaths have been recorded (24 % of all combatants). Combatants born between 1960 and 1964 had the same probability of dying in the past forty years as non-combatants, although surviving veterans exhibited a slightly lower mortality risk. There was an overrepresentation of individuals born in the provinces of Chaco and Corrientes. The war left approximately 600 children, 1,200 parents, 1,800 siblings, and 1,100 grandparents in bereavement. Given the information currently available, the composition of causes of death and the internal morbidity–mortality differentials among veterans remain unknown.