Taking Demographic Projections Survival rates are used extensively in demographic projection techniques.

Survival rates are derived from life tables or census data, and are used to calculate the number of people that will be alive in the future. In many cases, planners can obtain survival rates from a national or regional statistics office, or from life tables. If survival rates or life tables are not available, the rates may be computed from a model life table or census data.
Life tables Life tables are used to measure mortality, survivorship, and the life expectancy of a population at varying ages.

There are several types of life tables. A generation or cohort life table is a life history of the mortality experiences of an actual cohort of individuals. The cohort begins at birth and their mortality experiences are recorded through the death of the last member of that cohort. For example, demographers use the table to trace the mortality experiences of a cohort or group of individuals born in 1910 and record the mortality experiences of each member until the last one dies. In most cases, generation life tables are used to study historic periods.
Current or period life tables Period life tables are based on the mortality experience of a hypothetical cohort of newborn babies, usually 100,000 newborns, who are subject to the age-specific mortality rates on which the table is based. It traces the cohort of newborn babies throughout their lifetime under the assumption that they are subject to the age-specific mortality rates of a region or country.

There are two types of current life tables:   Unabridged, for single years of life Abridged, for 5-year cohorts of life

In many countries, life tables are based on an average of age-specific death rates for a 3year time period, generally around a census taking. In many cases, the life tables are prepared every 10 years. For example, a country or state would collect age-specific death rates for 1999, 2000, and 2001. The census for year 2000 would be used for the base population.

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7.2 Columns of a Life Table Table 7-1 provides an example of an abridged life table.

Table 7-1 Example of an Abridged Life Table

Age Interval Column 1

nQx Column 2

lx Column 3

n dx Column 4

Lx Column 5

Tx Column 6

e Column 7

00-01 1-5 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30 30-35 35-40 40-45 45-50 50-55 55-60 60-65 65-70 70-75 75-80 80-85 85-90 90-95 95+

0.02592 0.0042 0.00232 0.00201 0.00443 0.00611 0.00632 0.00654 0.01098 0.01765 0.02765 0.04387 0.05987 0.09654 0.13654 0.18765 0.25439 0.37887 0.47898 0.57908 1

100000 97408 96999 96774 96579 96151 95564 94960 94339 93303 91656 89122 85212 80111 72377 62494 50767 37853 23511 12250 5156

2592 409 225 195 428 587 604 621 1036 1647 2534 3910 5102 7734 9882 11727 12915 14341 11261 7094 5156

97408 387996 483869 482897 480757 477820 474800 471695 466516 458282 445610 426061 400553 361884 312472 253837 189263 117557 61250 25781 16548

6892855 6795447 6407451 5923582 5440686 4959928 4482108 4007308 3535613 3069097 2610815 2165205 1739144 1338591 976707 664235 410399 221135 103578 42329 16548

68.93 69.76 66.06 61.21 56.33 51.58 46.90 42.20 37.48 32.89 28.48 24.29 20.41 16.71 13.49 10.63 8.08 5.84 4.41 3.46 3.21

The columns of the life table include: Column 1 Age interval, x to x+n: Age interval between exact ages for each row of the life table Column 2 nQx: The proportion of the population in each age interval that are alive at the beginning of the interval, and dead before reaching the end of the interval. The proportion is computed from the observed mortality rates of an actual population and is used to derive the remaining columns of the life table. Column 3 lx: The number of persons alive at the beginning of the age interval Column 4 ndx: The number of persons dying during the age interval Column 5 Lx: The total number of person-years in the stationary population for each age interval. It

can be viewed as the average population size between birthdays, taking into account the distribution of deaths throughout the year. Column 6 Tx: This column records the stationary population in the indicated age interval and all subsequent intervals. It is the cumulative sum of the nLx values. It can be viewed as the total number of person-years that would be lived for a particular age cohort if the cohort were to progress through the remainder of the life table. Columns 5 and 6 represent a hypothetical stationary population which has experienced: a. No migration b. Constant age-specific number of births each year c. An increase by a constant number of births each year and decrease by the same constant number of deaths each year d. Stationary age structure size In each age group, the number of personyears lived is always the same as that of the original life table cohort. When a person dies or enters the next higher age interval, their place is immediately taken by someone entering from the next lower age interval. The number of persons in the age interval remains the same. The values in the Lx and Tx columns are based on the assumption that an additional 100,000 persons are added to the table annually and are subject to the mortality rates computed in the nQx column. The population is considered stationary because the total population and the number of people in each age interval do not change. Column 7 e: This column indicates the average remaining lifetime for a given age group.