A Life Table is a description of the mortality and fertility experience of a group of people (called a cohort) as they proceed through life. An Abridged Life Table is shown below for some hypothetical group of humans.
Some Definitions:
Age Category: This is the years in the life of the cohort. All other variables refer to the experience in this age category.
Death Rate: This is the proportion of people who die in that age interval. It is the Mortality Force for that age interval. This is one of the key components in life history analysis.
Survival Rate: This is the chances of surviving an age class.
Survivorship: This is the chances of surviving from birth to the beginning of the age class.
Fertility: This is the average number of offspring produced by a typical person during that age interval.
Reproductive Value: This is the number of offspring that a typical person will have in their life time. This number is often used as a measure of Reproductive Success. The bigger this number is, the higher the fitness of those individuals following this kind of life course.
