Definition:Life Tables

Definition

Life tables are a set of reference tables which show:

for a specific population of class of individual people

for a given number alive at a specified age

the number of people who are expected to live to successive higher ages.

Life tables may be based on retrospective studies of particular populations or groups of people.

Actuaries use this information to produce tables to predict such outcomes for similar populations in the future.

Examples

Life tables may include categories for the following:

English males

Canadian females

for $1000$ individuals alive at age $40$.

Also known as

Life tables are also known as:

life expectancy tables

mortality tables.

Also see

• Results about life tables can be found here.

Historical Note

Life tables were the invention of John Graunt, who published the first set of these in $1662$, as Natural and Political Observations Mentioned in a Following Index and Made upon the Bills of Mortality.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): life tables (John Graunt, 1662)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): life tables (J. Graunt, 1662)