In response to my diary piece, a kind reader has sent me the relevant
actuarial tables (though from 1983). Here is a subset of them. The meaning
of, for example, the “60″ row is: Of every 1,000 males aged 60 in 1983,
9.158 were destined not to make it to 61. It is indeed the case that at age
105, your chance of making it to your next birthday is only 50-50. Is it
me, or is there something a bit creepy about the actuarial business? An
actuary once told me that I would most likely die in October of 2026 (I
think that’s what it was). I’d really rather not have known that.
1983 GAM Attained Age Mortality Table
“Annual Rates of Death per 1,000 Lives”
Age Male Female
10 0.293 0.096
20 0.377 0.189
30 0.607 0.342
40 1.238 0.665
50 3.909 1.647
60 9.158 4.241
70 27.530 12.385
80 74.070 42.945
90 166.307 111.750
100 319.185 295.187
110 1000.000 1000.000