Interim life tables are produced annually for the United Kingdom and its constituent countries. They are known as interim life tables since graduated (smoothed) life tables for England & Wales combined and for Scotland are also prepared every ten years, based on data around a census year. On 31 January 2006, responsibility for the production of national life tables transferred to the Office for National Statistics, click the link for contact details.
Each life table is based on the population estimates and deaths data for a period of three consecutive years. The current interim life tables for 2006-2008 are available on the Office for National Statistics website.
The historical interim life tables are based on the latest available population estimates and revised population estimates (from 1980 to 2006) as at 30 October 2008.
The full series of interim life tables from 1980-82 onwards is available at National Statistics Online.
Historical Interim Life Tables 1980-82 to 2004-2006 |
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United Kingdom |
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Great Britain |
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England and Wales |
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England |
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Wales |
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Scotland |
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Northern Ireland |
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(Microsoft Excel documents 315kb each) |
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The deaths data used to produce the interim life tables are by date of registration for all countries. Previously, deaths data from England and Wales were by date of registration for years before 1993 and by date of occurrence for 1993 and later years. In 2007 the 1990-93 to 2003-05 interim life tables for England, Wales, England & Wales, Great Britain and the United Kingdom were revised to take account of the switch to England and Wales registrations data for all years. The tables for Scotland and Northern Ireland were unaffected by this revision.
For years up to and including 2007 the births data used to produce the tables were by date of registration for England and Wales, and by date of occurrence for Scotland and Northern Ireland. From 2008 (affecting the 2005-07 tables only at present), births data were by date of occurrence across the UK.
Note that a minor methodological change was introduced for the 2005-07 figures to ensure consistency with published population estimates of the very elderly.
For a brief explanation of the notation used in the life tables please click on the link.
For an explanation of the method of calculation please click on the link.