In Common Law, the Difference between a Rent and an Annuity consists in this, that Rent is payable out of Land; whereas an Annuity charges only the Person of the Grantor. See RENT, WRIT, ACTION, etc. Add, that annuities are never taken for Assets; as being no Freeholds in Law. See ASSETS.
The Computation of the Value of Annuities belongs to Political Arithmetic. See POLITICAL ARITHMETIC. Dr. Halley, in his Observations on the Breslau Bills of Mortality, shows that it is 80 to 1 a Person of 25 Years of Age does not die in a Year; that it is 52 to one, a Man of 40 lives 7 Years; and that one of 30 may reasonably expect to live 27 or 28 Years.
So great a difference is there between the Life of Man at different Ages; that it is 100 to 1 one of 20 lives out a Year; and but 38 to 1 that one of 50 does so.
Whence, and from some other Observations, he constructed the following Table; showing the Value of Annuities for every fifth Year of Life to the 70th.
