Interpretation and use of the United Nations 1982 Model Life Tables: With particular reference to developing countries

Abstract

The United Nations Population Division published a set of model life tables for developing countries in 1982. These mortality models were soon accepted and have been used widely in demographic teaching and research. Despite that, however, a number of questions regarding the interpretation and use of the UN model life tables have not been adequately answered. This paper examines mortality changes in the populations studied by the UN Population Division in the early 1980s and compares their mortality patterns with the mortality models constructed by the Population Division and by Coale and Demeny. It shows that mortality patterns in many of these populations are better represented by Coale-Demeny mortality models than by the UN models. Some UN mortality models are not distinctive and mortality patterns similar to these models have been found in many developed countries. In most populations, age patterns of mortality have gone through considerable changes during their mortality decline. On the basis of these results, the paper addresses several issues regarding the interpretation and use of the UN model life tables.