The fact that lower socioeconomic groups experience the highest mortality rates is widely recognized. However, few attempts have been made to compare the situation between countries, taking into consideration the causes of death. The existence of comparable nation-wide data, and collaborative work in the workshops of the European Science Foundation, made possible the comparison presented in this paper. The mortality experience of male unskilled workers is described for Finland, Norway, Denmark, England and Wales, and France. The excess of mortality in the group is more pronounced in some countries; it is especially high in France. The causes of death responsible for extra deaths are not the same in every country: in Finland accidents and cardiovascular diseases have an important place; respiratory diseases are more important in England and Wales than in other countries; in France, a large part of differential mortality is linked to diseases related to alcohol consumption.