Closing-out the Algerian life tables : for more accuracy and adequacy at old-ages

Farid Flici, Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée pour le Développement (CREAD )

Due to data unavailability or irregularity beyond a certain age, particularly in developing countries, the model life tables are an unavoidable solution to estimate the old ages mortality. As an international standard, this tool provides approximate estimates which are not well adapted to specific countries context. Thus, the obtained results are not always satisfying, especially when the model life tables are not correctly used. Thereby, estimating the old ages mortality by extrapolating the trend observed at younger ages is assumed to provide more consistent results. In this paper, we evaluate and compare some models to extend mortality rates beyond the age of 80 for the Algerian population. Based on the extrapolated mortality rates, we re-estimated the life expectancy at birth. The comparison of this last showed a gap of +1 year on average on the period [1977, 2014] compared to official statistics.