Heligman-Pollard Model
The Heligman-Pollard model is an eight-parameter parametric law that describes the age pattern of mortality across the entire human lifespan in a single equation. Introduced by Larry Heligman and John Pollard in 1980, it represents the odds of dying at each age as the sum of three additive components — a rapidly declining childhood term, a young-adult accident hump, and an exponentially rising senescent term — capturing the full characteristic shape of the mortality curve from birth to old age.
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Sources
- Heligman, L., & Pollard, J. H. (1980). The age pattern of mortality. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 107(1), 49–80. DOI: 10.1017/S0020268100040257 ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Heligman-Pollard Eight-Parameter Mortality Law. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/demography/heligman-pollard-model
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