Life table

A statistical table summarizing survival and mortality across ages in a population. It records age-specific death rates and derives measures such as survival probabilities and life expectancy.

Mortality rate: The frequency of deaths in a population during a specified period, relative to the population at risk. Age-specific mortality rates supply the central inputs for calculating a life table.
Radix (demography): The fixed initial number of individuals used as the starting population in a life table. A radix gives the table a common starting cohort from which survivors are calculated.
Period life table: A life table applying one period's age-specific mortality rates to a hypothetical cohort. It is the standard construction behind many published national life-expectancy estimates.
Kaplan–Meier estimator: A nonparametric estimator of a survival function that accommodates censored observations. It estimates survival from individual event times rather than a tabulated age schedule.
John Graunt: An English statistician whose 1662 analysis of London mortality records helped establish demography. His early mortality summaries anticipated systematic age-based survival accounting.
Survival analysis: Statistical methods for analyzing the time until an event, such as death, occurs. Life tables are a foundational summary method within this broader statistical field.
Survivorship curve: A graph showing the proportion of a population surviving at each age. The life table's survivor counts can be converted directly into this curve.
Cohort life table: A life table tracing the actual mortality experience of a birth cohort as it ages. It describes observed survival across a generation rather than a hypothetical one.
Hazard function: The instantaneous event rate at a given time, conditional on survival until that time. It describes conditional risk, while life tables usually report interval-based mortality.
Edmond Halley: An English astronomer and mathematician who published an early life table using Breslau birth and death records in 1693. His table connected observed mortality with calculations of life annuities.

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