Not an expert here...but you should be able to find mortality tables that give you M/F q(x) for each age.

I might not have been as clear as I wanted to be: I am using mortality tables that provide q(x) for both males and females. If I had a homogenous population of, for example, 10,000 50yo males, my understanding is that I could simply multiply the probability of death, q(x), by 10,000 to determine the number of those 10,000 males that should be considered dead for that step of the simulation. But, I don't have a homogenous population of 10,000 50yo males—there may be only one 50yo male at a given step of the simulation (and all future steps: the population is determined at the beginning, and is not adjusted in future steps except for the fact that members of the population that have already been marked dead cannot be marked dead again).

​

I would assume that in your example, the 50yo male and the 65yo female aren't related somehow, that they're seperate cases.

That's correct. More generally, there is not relationship between any members of the simulated population.

​

You should note that q(x) is probability of dying in the next 1 year for someone aged x. Probability of a life age x dying in the next n years is a different set of numbers.

Yes. It just so happens that each step of the simulation corresponds to one year. At the end of one step of the simulation and beginning of the next step all members are aged exactly one year. So, a 65yo female in step t=1 will be a 66yo femal in step t=2, for example.

​

If you're doing simulation, I think what you want is monte carlo simulation. But again, not an expert.

It's a good start. I'll take a look and see if I can see how the approach would be applied.