Life tables (cont.)
Historical note
Figure 2: Edmond Halley's Life Table of 1693.
Note that the Radix is 1000. Click to enlarge
The first life table accredited as such is that shown in Table 2. John Graunt was an early statistician and demographer in the mid-1600's. He is credited with devising his simple life table as part of his work on the Bills of Mortality - basically government records of deaths in London and other cities at the time. This was important work because the Bills were considered an important way to monitor plague and other major causes of death. Graunt's life tables allowed very early comparisons of death rates between major cities in England, not at a great level of accuracy but much better than previously possible.
Another early user and developer of life tables was the astronomer Edmond Halley - the same person who first described Halley's Comet. He was the Astronomer Royal but, perhaps because he wanted something to do during the day, became interested in mortality studies and some 30 years after John Graunt he developed better, but still quite primitive, forms of life tables to advise bankers on annuity rates. This methodology became standard; mortality life tables have always been essential to life insurance companies and for the closely related financial service of providing annuities. Halley's work on life tables is acknowledged in Westminster Abbey London. On a large wall plaque his achievements are listed, mostly his astronomical works, but also "He laid the foundation for actuarial science."