Description: Australia has conducted ten national censuses since World War II: in 1947, 1954, 1961 and at five-year intervals through 1996. Life tables have been prepared in connection with each of these censuses except the most recent one, for which data is still being collected.

Description: Two-dimensional data can be smoothed by minimizing a combination of the sum of weighted absolute deviations from initial estimates and the sums of absolute values of differences in the two directions. This paper discusses the techniques of parametric programming which make it feasible to explore the different results obtained by varying the emphasis given to fit versus smoothness. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1994, VOL. 1.