Nathan Keyfitz was renowned for his use of simple yet elegant mathematical models to address important societal problems. Inspired by his teachings and writings, I have applied basic mathematical and statistical tools to obtain a better understanding of social inequalities in survival, some of which I will describe in this talk, For example, why do never-married persons typically die earlier than their married counterparts? Why do Latinos in the US live longer than non-Latino whites despite their having lower education, lower income and poorer access to healthcare? And, why have middle-aged and older American women been experiencing progressively poorer survival prospects than women in other wealthy countries? Based on a large interdisciplinary data collection effort, I have attempted to identify the social and biological factors that matter most for survival across high life expectancy populations, an undertaking which has yielded surprising findings.