Tools › Finance and Business › Economics and Damages › Economic Damages › Example

NCHS United States Life Tables 2020: life expectancy and survival probabilities of a 40-year-old

ToolEconomic Damages
SourceArias, E., and Xu, J. (2022). "United States Life Tables, 2020." National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 71, No. 1. National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD. Tables 2 and 3.
LevelProfessional

Problem

For a damages report on a 40-year-old man with a 22-year work life, read from the 2020 United States life tables his remaining life expectancy, the number of years the schedule must run, and the probability that he survives to the end of the work life (age 62) and to age 65; compare with a woman of the same age.

Inputs to Enter

  • Age at injury 40, sex male (the default); work-life expectancy 22 years (entered, to age 62)
  • Life expectancy left blank so the NCHS 2020 table is used (an entered value overrides it)
  • The default earnings inputs (60,000 a year, 3 % growth, 25 % fringe, 5 % discount) are illustrative and not from a published example
Open the Economic Damages tool

Answers

  • e(40) male = 37.0 years (T(40)/l(40) = 3,497,404 / 94,420 = 37.04), so the schedule runs 37 years to age 77; e(40) female = 41.5
  • Survival 40 → 62 (end of the work life) = l(62)/l(40) = 80,414 / 94,420 = 0.852; 40 → 65 = 76,439 / 94,420 = 0.810; female 40 → 65 = 86,039 / 97,215 = 0.885
  • Table check values: e(0) = 74.2 (males) and 79.9 (females); q(0) 0.005849 / 0.004918; l(65) 76,439 / 86,039; e(65) 17.0 / 19.8
  • Ages between the printed integers are read linearly: e(40.5) male = 36.6

Notes

The default inputs produce these life-table figures on the results page (the earnings total 1,874,999.71 of the default is checked only against an independent numpy schedule, not a published example). The SSA 2020 period life table could not be fetched, so the tool carries the NCHS table with an entered-life-expectancy override.