Using results of Chandra observations of old stellar systems in eleven nearby galaxies of various morphological types and the census of LMXBs in the Milky Way , we study the population of low mass X-ray binaries and their relation to the mass of the host galaxy .
We show that the azimuthally averaged spatial distribution of the number of LMXBs and , in the majority of cases , of their collective luminosity closely follows that of the near-infrared light .
Considering galaxies as a whole , we find that in a broad mass range , \log ( M _ { * } ) \sim 9 - 11.5 , the total number of LMXBs and their combined luminosity are proportional to the stellar mass of the host galaxy .
Within the accuracy of the light-to-mass conversion , we can not rule out the possibility of a weak dependence of the X/M _ { * } ratio on morphological type .
However , the effect of such a dependence , if any , does not exceed a factor of \sim 1.5 - 2 .

The luminosity distributions of LMXBs observed in different galaxies are similar to each other and , with the possible exception of NGC1553 , are consistent with the average luminosity function derived from all data .
The average XLF of LMXBs in nearby galaxies has a complex shape and is significantly different from that of HMXBs .
It follows a power law with a differential slope of \approx 1 at low luminosities , gradually steepens at \log ( L _ { X } ) \ga 37.0 - 37.5 and has a rather abrupt cut-off at \log ( L _ { X } ) \sim 39.0 - 39.5 .
This value of the cut-off luminosity is significantly , by an order of magnitude , lower than found for high mass X-ray binaries .