Sources of Mortality Tables

There are two sources from which the best-known mortality tables in existence to-day have been obtained: (1) population statistics obtained from census enumerations, and the returns of deaths from registration offices, and (2) the mortality statistics of insured lives. Well-known examples of the former are the English life tables of Drs. Farr, Ogle, and Tatham, successively in charge of the General Registry Office of England and Wales. Dr. Farr's life table, for instance, was based on the registered deaths in England and Wales during the years 1838-54, and on the two census enumerations of population for 1841 and 1851.