Gompertz law
DEGompertz-Gesetz
Gompertz law, set out by the British actuary Benjamin Gompertz in 1825, captures a striking pattern: in adults, your risk of dying rises exponentially with age. To be exact, the death rate (the hazard) roughly doubles every 8 years in most rich countries. In math terms, the instant death rate is μ(t) = a·e^(bt), where a is the baseline rate and b is how fast it accelerates with age. The law holds across most of adult life, in humans and many other species. But at very old ages, death rates seem to slow or plateau, so it is not universal. Gompertz dynamics sit at the heart of actuarial science, epidemiology, and the theory of aging.
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