Pension Advisory
LifeMetrics - Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Age last birthday: Age of an individual as a whole number of years, by rounding down to the age at the most recent birthday
CBS: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (otherwise known as Statistics Netherlands), the Dutch government organisation responsible for producing national population and mortality statistics in the Netherlands
CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, government organization in U.S. responsible for producing national population mortality statistics
Census Bureau: U.S. government organization responsible for producing national population estimates
Central rate of mortality: The proportion of people of a given age expected to die within the year, expressed in terms of the expected number of life-years rather than initial lives
CMIB: Continuous Mortality Investigation Bureau, affiliated to the Institute of Actuaries in U.K., with the function of producing mortality tables for use by insurers and pension plans
Cohort: A group of lives categorized according to common characteristics such as sex and year of birth
Cohort effect: The phenomenon of different cohorts exhibiting different rates of mortality improvement due to having different years of birth
Cohort life expectancy: See life expectancy
Cohort life table: See life table
Crude: Refers to raw data on mortality rates. In particular it is not ‘graduated’ or smoothed
Cubic spline: One form of smooth curve fitted statistically through any number of given data points
ELT: English Life Table, graduated mortality rates for England & Wales published every 10 years
Exposure-to-risk: Refers to the total number of ‘person-years’ in a population over a calendar year. It is similar to the average number of individuals in the population over a calendar year adjusted for the length of time they are in the population
FRG: Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; Bundesrepublik Deutschland; commonly known in English as West Germany)
Force of mortality: The instantaneous rate of mortality
GAD: Government Actuary Department, responsible for U.K. population estimates and projections prior to 31 January 2006
GDR: The German Democratic Republic (GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR; commonly known in English as East Germany)
Graduated: Similar to ‘smoothed’ but specifically in the context mortality rates that have been smoothed across age
ILT: Interim Life Table, annually published mortality rates for England & Wales based on the most recent three-year period
Initial rate of mortality: The proportion of people currently alive, for a specific age, population, gender, as published for a given Index reference year, that are expected to die within the year. The initial rate of mortality is normally denoted as qx for lives aged x
Lexis diagram: Two dimensional plot of a population’s life experience by time and age
Life expectancy: The average remaining lifetime for an individual expressed in years. Period life expectancy uses the current mortality table without further improvements whereas cohort life expectancy incorporates expected future mortality improvements
Life span: Average age at death. Also equal to the sum of life expectancy and current age
Life table: Table of death rates relating to a stated population, normally published for each age and sex. A period life table provides a single mortality rate per age without allowing for how mortality rates may change over time. A cohort life table provides mortality rates that vary over time for each age, resulting in a two-dimensional table
Longevity: Refers to the length of life
Longevity risk: The risk typically borne by annuity providers or pension funds from an unanticipated reduction in mortality rates. That is, a loss is sustained if longevity increases (mortality falls)
Mortality curve: The curve of mortality rate plotted against age
Mortality improvement: Rate of decrease in mortality rate, usually in respect of the progression of time
Mortality rate: See initial rate of mortality and central rate of mortality
Mortality risk: The risk typically borne by life insurance providers from an unanticipated increase in mortality rates. That is, a loss is sustained if mortality increases
ONS: Office for National Statistics, government organization in U.K. responsible for producing mortality statistics for England & Wales, and population estimates for U.K.
Period life expectancy: See life expectancy
Period life table: See life table
Population: Group of people defined by a common characteristic, not including Age, Gender or Index Year; Geography is one example
Publication year: The year in which the Index data is published, which could be some time after the end of the year in to which it relates, i.e. the reference year
q-duration: Sensitivity in value to a change in mortality rate, similar to the concept of interest rate duration
Reference year: The year to which the data relates as opposed to the year in which it is published, i.e. 2003 CDC data may only have been published in 2006, so 2003 is the reference year whereas 2006 is the Publication Year
SB: Statistische Bundesamt (otherwise known as The Federal Statistics Office) is a government body that collects and analyzes statistical information in Germany including population and death data
Statistics Netherlands: See CBS
Statistische Bundesamt: See SB
Stochastic mortality model: Mortality model that can be used to generate a large number of possible paths of future mortality rates in order to evaluate longevity and mortality risk
Subpopulation: Subset of a larger population defined by common characteristics such as age, gender, socio-economic group, geography and/or lifestyle
Survival probability/rate: The annual survival probability for an individual. The survival probability at age x is 1-qx, where qx is the initial rate of mortality