data(ratetables)
survexp.uswhite<-survexp.usr[,,"white",]Each of these tables contains the daily hazard rate for a matched subject from the population, defined as -log(1-q)/365.24 where q is the 1 year probability of death as reported in the original tables. For age 25 in 1970, for instance, p = 1-q is is the probability that a subject who becomes 25 years of age in 1970 will achieve his/her 26th birthday. The tables are recast in terms of hazard per day entirely for computational convenience. (The fraction .24 in the denominator is based on 24 leap years per century.)
Each table is stored as an array, with additional attributes, and can be subset and manipulated as standard S arrays. Interpolation between calendar years is done "on the fly" by the survexp routine.
Some of the deficiencies, e.g. 1970 Arizona non-white, are a result of local conditions. The data probably exists, but we don't have a copy it in the library.
The tables have been augmented to contain extrapolated
values for 1990 and 2000. The details can be found in Mayo Clinic Biostatistics
technical report 63 at