Table 1.

Descriptive information on the data sources

Population	Follow-up period		Number of person years at risk	Educational level (%)
	Date of census	End of follow-up		Lower secondary or less	Upper secondary	Post-secondary
Madrid	May 1996	Dec 1997	1,756,059	64.1	17.4	18.5
Basque region	May 1996	June 2001	2,985,865	65.6	20.1	14.3
Barcelona	Jan 1992	Dec 2001	3,714,380	65.2	15.3	19.5
Turin	Nov 1991	Oct 2001	2,611,968	67.2	22.2	10.6
France	Mar 1990	Dec 1999	1,135,299	50.6	36.7	12.7
Switzerland (Latin)	Dec 1990	Dec 2000	3,180,536	24.6	51.6	23.8
Switzerland (German)	Dec 1990	Dec 2000	9,789,453	17.9	57.6	24.5
Belgium (Walloon)	Mar 1991	Dec 1995	4,053,514	63.0	21.4	15.6
Belgium (Brussels)	Mar 1991	Dec 1995	1,141,038	52.5	21.9	25.6
Belgium (Flemish)	Mar 1991	Dec 1995	7,506,231	61.5	22.2	16.3
Norway	Nov 1990	Nov 2000	10,021,675	29.9	48.4	21.7
Sweden	Jan 1991	Dec 2000	21,421,623	40.3	43.3	16.4
Finland	Dec 1990	Dec 2000	12,396,052	48.8	29.7	21.5