A short note on the construction of life tables and multiple decrement tables

The purpose of this short note is to explain a simple method of constructing a life table, given an explicit function for the force of mortality, μ x , for all x . A similar method can be applied to the construction of multiple decrement tables, given explicit functions for the separate forces of transition, μ b x , μ c x , etc, from one ‘active’ status ( a ) to various ‘dead’ statuses ( b, c , etc) for all x . Although numerical results for the examples discussed in this note could be calculated equally well by more direct methods than the ones described herein, results for more complicated examples involving multiple status tables, in which transition back and forth between statuses is possible, cannot in general be calculated by such direct methods, and our methods provide a practical way by means of which numerical results for these more complicated cases can be calculated.