the decline for men has been particularly strong since figure shows the relationship between declining rates of cvd morality and gains in life expectancy the horizontal axis represents the reduction in cvd mortality in percentage terms achieved by oecd countries between and for example in the netherlands the cvd mortality rate fell from per population in to in representing a fall countries such as israel and australia have been able to reduce cvdrelated mortality by more than over this period whereas other countries such as greece the slovak republic and mexico have reduced their rates by or less