(He reckoned London's population at 384,000, far smaller than contemporary

estimates of two million.) To bring clarity to his calculations, Graunt created a series
of tables. In one, he summarized the causes of death for a twenty-year period and
found the mortality rates of acute and chronic diseases, especially of the plague. In
another table, Graunt showed how many individuals out of a population of one
hundred would be alive at specific ages. This was the first life table (or mortality
table) ever constructed and was an entirely new way to conceptualize life
expectancy. Mathematicians such as Edmund Halley (1656–1742) and Antoine de
Parcieux refined Graunt's life table over the course of the late seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. They remain essential tools of modern demography and
actuarial science.