Overview
The Human Mortality Database (HMD) is a collaborative research infrastructure maintained by the Department of Demography at the University of California, Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Rostock, Germany). It provides detailed mortality and population data — death counts, exposure-to-risk, and period and cohort life tables by single year of age and calendar year — for more than 40 countries and regions, in some cases spanning several centuries. All data are processed under a common methodological protocol, making the HMD the de facto standard source for comparative mortality research in demography, actuarial science, and epidemiology. Open access is provided free of charge to registered users.
Key Contributions / Features
- Standardized life tables: Period and cohort life tables constructed from civil registration death counts and census/intercensal population estimates using a unified methodology; single-year age groups to 110+
- Long time series: Swedish data begin 1751; U.S. data begin 1933; most high-income countries covered from at least 1950
- 40+ populations: Covers virtually all high-income countries; Eastern European countries added progressively from the late 1990s onward
- Transparent production process: Full methodology document specifies data cleaning, smoothing, and reconciliation procedures — production is replicable
- Reference dataset for mortality model estimation: Used for validating Lee-Carter Model parameters, estimating the Shifting Logistic Model constant β across countries, and fitting Linear Shift Model relationships between period and cohort life expectancy; b_x estimates in Lee-Carter rely heavily on HMD age-specific death rates
- Young adult mortality research: Basis for Goldstein (2011) secular-trend analysis of the accident hump and Remund et al. (2018) decomposition of the Young Adult Mortality Hump by cause of death; Heuveline (2002) international comparative analysis also uses HMD-precursor data
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