EN
In the second half of the 19th century, Slovakia was characterized by very unfavourable mortality rates. Low life expectancy at birth, low dynamics of life extension, high child, infant and neonatal mortality, high importance of infectious diseases, high values of the paradox of life expectancy were only some of the characteristic features of the mortality ratios of men and women in Slovakia. However, the end of the century and the first half of the 20th century brought a relatively dynamic and historically unique transformation of the mortality process and the epidemiological picture. The aim of this article is to analyse changes in mortality in Slovakia in the first half of the 20th century using modern historical-demographic methods and indicators. We have confirmed the dynamic extension of life in both sexes, especially in the interwar period and in the first years after the Second World War. A significant contribution to this was the reduction of infant mortality. However, the mortality rate gradually decreased even among older children and those of reproductive age. Cancer and cardiovascular diseases came to the fore, while the influence of infectious diseases was suppressed. The results also confirmed the existence of significant spatial differences in mortality, the determining factor of which was mainly infant and child mortality. With its reduction, there were certain convergence tendencies.