Life tables

Life tables (or mortality tables or actuarial tables) are tables that indicate the probability that a person in a given population at an certain age will die before their next birthday. These tables are used in several fields, including epidemiology, biology and actuarial science (insurance) to calculate a number of other statistics, including:

• the probability of surviving any particular year of age
• remaining life expectancy for people at different ages
• the proportion of the original birth cohort still alive
• estimates of a cohort's longevity characteristics.

Further reading and links

• Life tables for WHO member states