Description of a Mortality Table

A mortality table has been described as the picture of "a generation of individuals passing through time". It shows a group of individuals entering upon a certain age and traces the history of the entire group year by year until all have died. Since any description will best be understood by reference to an actual table, the American Experience table, used almost exclusively for the computation of premium rates by old line companies in the United States, is presented below.

The essential features of the table are the two columns of the number living and the number dying at designated ages. It is assumed that a group of 100,000 persons comes under observation at exactly the same moment as they enter upon the tenth year of life. Of this group 749 die during the year, leaving 99,251 to begin the eleventh year. The table proceeds in this manner to record the number of the original 100,000 dying during each year of life and the number living at the beginning of each succeeding year until but three persons of the original group are found to enter upon the ninety-fifth year of life, these three dying during that year.

American Experience Table of Mortality