Transmission coefficients forn, p,2H,3H,3He and4He generated from global optical potentials available in the literature are parametrized in terms of simple empirical expressions which are smooth functions of the target mass number and projectile energy. These empirical forms predict the transmission coefficients and the magnitude of the scattering matrix satisfactorily for nuclei over the whole periodic table and energies up to 50 MeV. They are a convenient input in statistical model calculations where transmission coefficients are required.