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

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.

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