The past 150 years have seen a transformation in human mortality in the developed world. Mortality has changed from being a feature of all ages, particularly for infants, to being very much a phenomenon of later life. Source: English Life Tables. ELT3 figure at age 0 (not shown) is 16.4%. These curves can be explored in more detail using our online tool.

Life expectancy in the United Kingdom has increased steadily over the past thirty years. Every socio-economic group has benefited, but the differences between the various groups still remain. Source: ONS Longitudinal Survey. A database system for profiling the socio-economic (or lifestyle) group of UK residents is now available from Experian: more details here.

All socio-economic groups have recorded large improvements in life expectancy, groups IV and V have not improved as fast as the others. The other groups predominate in annuity portfolios and defined-benefit pension schemes, however, and they have recorded increases of between 30% and 40% in life expectancy since 1972. Source: Richards Consulting calculations using data from the ONS Longitudinal Survey.

The link between lung cancer and the smoking epidemic. Sources: Richards Consulting restructuring of data from Lee et al (1990), Forey et al (1993) and ONS (Twentieth Century Mortality). CCTCC = Cumulative Constant Tar Cigarette Consumption, a standardised measure of lifetime cigarette consumption, shown in units of 100,000.

The first half of the Twentieth Century was characterised by a large reduction in mortality due to infectious or respiratory disease. These improvements were obscured by a simultaneous increase in heart-disease mortality. The latter half of the Twentieth Century is characterised by a sustained fall in mortality due to circulatory disease, a near-linear trend for the past thirty years. Source: ONS data.

Both annuity portfolios and defined-benefit pension schemes have tremendous concentration of risk in a relatively small number of hands. This graph shows that typically around half of all benefits are paid to just 10% of members. Source: Richards (2008).