| pubmed-article:3413369 | pubmed:abstractText | How much unique information is contained in any life table? The logarithmic survivorship (lx) columns of 360 empirical life tables were fitted by a weighted fifth degree polynomial, and it is shown that six parameters are adequate to reproduce these curves almost flawlessly. However, these parameters are highly intercorrelated, so that a two-dimensional representation would be adequate to express the similarities and differences among life tables. It is thus concluded that a life table contains but two unique pieces of information, these being the level of mortality in the population which it represents, and the relative shape of the underlying mortality curve. | lld:pubmed |
