Little has been written about the ways in which computers can be used to deal with specifically actuarial problems, as opposed to data processing ones. The development of “higher-level” computer languages has enabled algorithms to be written in the form of programs which are reasonably intelligible, and with the use of one such language, Algol, the paper sets out to show how a variety of actuarial problems can be tackled.

Section 2 describes Algol in sufficient detail for the programs shown in the paper to be understood. Numerical Analysis is discussed in Section 3, which gives algorithms for some problems in Finite Differences, and Section 4 suggests the kind of program subroutines that may be required for statistical work. Part of the present Faculty Part II syllabus is dealt with in Sections 5 and 6 while Section 7 discusses the use that could be made of modern mathematical techniques, with the aid of the computer, in the problem of curve-fitting. Section 8 deals with the question of up-to-date actuarial notation and in Section 9 reference is made to two special column-processing computer languages, specially written for actuarial work, which are in use at the present time.