A comparison of parametric models for mortality graduation. Application to mortality data of the Valencia Region

Abstract

[EN] The parametric graduation of mortality data has as its objective the satisfactory estimation of the death rates based on mortality data but using an age-dependent function whose parameters are adjusted from the crude rates obtainable directly from the data. This paper proposes a revision of the most commonly used parametric methods and compares the results obtained with each of them when they are applied to the mortality data for the Valencia Region. As a result of the comparison, we conclude that the Gompertz-Makeham functions estimated by means of generalized linear models lead to the best results. Our working method is of additional interest for being applicable to mortality data for a wide range of ages from any geographical conditions, allowing us to select the most appropriate life table for the case in hand.