
Preface
The idea of this book first crossed my mind in the early 90s, when,
following the collapse of the Soviet Union, so many good mathemati-
cians, especially those outside probability theory and mathematical
statistics, found themselves unable to earn their bread by proving theo-
rems or even teaching mathematics. “But here it is,” I thought – “such
a fine field of applications as demography, and such a useful area as
life insurance. Why not make the transition from pure mathematics to
these fields easier?” Reading demographic books, notably, those of R.
Pressat, H. U. Gerber and N. Keyfitz, as well as learning numerical de-
mographic realities, helped ...