Graduated Life Table

Definition of "Graduated life table"

Mortality table that reflects irregularities from age to age due to chance fluctuations in the sequence of the rates of mortality. The rates of death as reflected by the mortality table in its most idealized form (the "perfect world" approach) should proceed smoothly from age bracket to subsequent age bracket. Irregularities may result from:

statistical fluctuations due to an insufficiently large data base.
use of statistics that are not homogeneous.
statistics of one particular mortality study not representing other mortality studies.
mortality statistics for later policy years too scanty to yield reliable information, and too heavily weighted towards the earlier policy years.