On the Rates of Mortality and Marriage amongst Europeans in India

Abstract

In a paper which I had the honour of reading before the Institute of Actuaries in December, 1862, an inquiry was made into the rates of mortality and marriage amongst Europeans in India, but was principally confined to the experience amongst military officers, as recorded in the books of the Madras Military Fund, and compared with the records of similar funds in the other Presidencies. The data—which I was favoured with an opportunity of collecting during an elaborate investigation into the position and prospects of the fund—extended over the long period of fifty years, from 1808 to 1857, and related to more than 5,000 officers who had entered the fund in that period, and had either died, or withdrawn, or were living at the close of the observations, on the 1st January, 1858. The subdivision of the facts into two periods, of those who entered from 1808 to 1822, and from 1822 to 1857, showed a very marked diminution at every quinquennial period of age in the rate of mortality up to the age of 50, after which, in the latter period, the numbers were not sufficient fairly to carry on the comparison. On the average of all ages the rate in the former period was 3·92 per cent., and in the latter 2·69 per cent., though allowance must be made for the fact that some of the latter had not attained such advanced ages.