Regional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations. Second Edition

Description

This second edition of Regional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations incorporates an extension in range of the original tables, an extension that will be particularly useful in applications to populations with low mortality. In the first edition, the model tables terminated with an open interval beginning at age 80, for persons and deaths. Sometimes deaths and populations beyond age 80 are of little demographic interest because there are so few survivors to age 80 at moderate to high mortality, and because only a very small fraction of the population is found at advanced ages in populations with high fertility. However, in the lowest mortality model life tables, "the proportion surviving from birth to age 80 is over 50%, and in low-fertility populations the fraction of the population over 80 can be comparable to the fraction under 10. The absence of information above age 80 in the first edition is therefore a potential handicap in applications to modern low mortality populations. Moreover, the highest expectation of life at birth represented in the first edition of model life tables (77 1/2 years) has been surpassed in several countries." In the second edition, "the life tables and stable populations are tabulated by five-year age intervals to age 100, in all but the highest mortality levels, in which the last five-year tabulation is from 90 to 95. The greatest expectation of life at birth is now 80 years (for females) rather than 77.5." A conscious decision has been made to avoid unnecessary changes from the first edition. "The tables presented here are two principal forms: model life tables and model stable populations.