Living Worlds

Research · Lifetimes · Oct 5, 2026

The UN's Bayesian model, stacked

Not met135 countries

The test at a glance

What it tests
Accuracy against reality: life expectancy in 2019, alone and stacked.
Data
UN World Population Prospects 2024, the countries of the first backcast; fitted up to 1999.
Held out
2019.
Compared against
The UN's Bayesian hierarchical model (bayesLife 5.3.1), Living Worlds' pooled-gain model, and the two stacked.
Bar
Error at most 1.2 years outside shock countries AND at most 1.8 overall, for both sexes.
Result
Pooled-gain better alone than stacked; neither met.

Living Worlds' own pooled-gain model did better alone than stacked with the UN's Bayesian hierarchical model; neither reached the target. Scored on 135 countries.

Protocol, result and scorer

Lifetimes

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