[Cause of death statistics (I). Resources for risk evaluation in life insurance?]

Vital statistics as they are generally used are of no help for evaluation of risks in life insurance since they are biased by the high number of the elderly population beyond age 70. Therefore the causes of death were compiled for the age groups from 15 to 70 that are of importance in life insurance. Tumors are the number one cause of death and not cardiovascular diseases which so far have been considered to be the number one. They take second place. Even in the male population cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death only from age 60 on upwards. Further cross-sectioning according to decades of age shows the typical causes of death for any particular age group. Below age 30 non-natural causes s. a. accident and suicide take with over 50 per cent first place. Females have a much lower mortality as is generally known; they contribute only one third to the overall mortality of the age group under consideration.