Significance of life table estimates for small populations: Simulation-based study of standard errors

Abstract

We study bias, standard errors, and distributions of characteristics of life tables for small populations. Theoretical considerations and simulations show that statistical efficiency of different methods is, above all, affected by the population size. Yet it is also significantly affected by the life table construction method and by a population's age composition. Study results are presented in the form of ready-to-use tables and relations, which may be useful in assessing the significance of estimates and differences in life expectancy across time and space for the territories with a small population size, when standard errors of life expectancy estimates may be high. © 2011 Sergei Scherbov & Dalkhat Ediev.