The methods of projecting future mortality in official forecasts of population growth in the Netherlands are described. In particular, it is noted that the projected sex, age, and marital status specific death rates were not split up by causes of death. An analysis of mortality from 1980 to 1990 is presented, and it is shown that "the life expectancies calculated for extrapolated death rates split up by group of causes of death hardly differ from those where such a split up is not made. According to the figures presented...the differences never exceed 0.2 years. From these figures it cannot be concluded that splitting up the death rates by groups of causes of death in the national population forecasts would lead to significantly different results as far as mortality is concerned." (summary in ENG)