Roman Life Expectancy

NB: All the figures below are approximations based on comparative evidence, rather than on the (largely inadequate) ancient statistical data. Among other potential problems:
(1) Several scholars would hold that the average life expectancy at birth assumed below (25 years) is too optimistic, at least for most ancient populations (NB: keep in mind that life-expectancy-at-birth is a mean, not a median; high infant mortality conceals the susbstantial number of people who will live well past this age.)
(2) These broad estimates do not allow us to account for possible variation across areas, socio-economic classes, or sex.
For more information see (among other things [click on highlighted titles for BMCR reviews]):

Roger Bagnall and Bruce Frier, The Demography of Roman Egypt (Cambridge, UK 1994).
Tim Parkin, Roman Demography and Society (Baltimore 1992).
Richard Saller, Patriarchy, Property and Death in the Roman Family (Cambridge, UK 1994).

Life Table

Life Table Approximating Roman Population (simplified from Coale-Demeny 2, Model South, Level 3, Female as cited in Parkin, Demography and Roman Society)

x	e(x)	x+e(x)	C(x)
0	25	25	3.3
1	33	34	9.3
5	43	48	9.8
10	41	51	9.3
15	37	52	8.9
20	34	54	8.3
25	32	57	7.8
30	29	59	7.2
35	26	61	6.6
40	23	63	6.1
45	20	65	5.6
50	17	67	5.0
55	14	69	4.4
60	10	70	3.5
65	8	73	2.5
70	6	76	2.2

x = Age
e(x) = Life Expectancy at age x
C(x) = Percentage of population between this age and the next

Infant Mortality rate = 319/1000
Stationary population requires GRR = 2.543 (i.e. about 5 children per mother, live-born)

Graphs

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