Benjamin Gompertz (March 5, 1779 - July 14, 1865, London, England), was a self educated mathematician, denied admission to university on account of his being Jewish. Nevertheless he was made Fellow of the Royal Society from 1819. Gompertz is today mostly known for his Gompertz's law of mortality, a demographic model published in 1825. The model can be written in this way:

$N\text{'}(t)\; =\; -r\; N(t)\; \backslash log\; \backslash left(\; \backslash frac\; \{N(t)\}\{K\}\; \backslash right)\backslash ,$

where $N(t)$ represents number of individuals at time t, r the intrinsic growth rate and K number of individuals in equilibrium.

This model is a refinement of the demographic model of Malthus. It was used by insurance companies to calculate the cost of life insurance. The equation, known as a Gompertz curve, is now used in many areas to model a time series where growth is slowest at the start and end of a period.

Gompertz's descendant Simon Gompertz is an economics presenter for the BBC.

See also

• Gompertz-Makeham law of mortality
• Population dynamics

References

• Gompertz, B., (1825). On the Nature of the Function Expressive of the Law of Human Mortality, and on a New Mode of Determining the Value of Life Contingencies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 115 (1825)pp. 513-585.

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1779 births | 1865 deaths | English mathematicians | 19th century mathematicians | Statisticians | British statisticians | Autodidacts | Fellows of the Royal Society | British Jews | Jewish mathematicians

Benjamin Gompertz | Benjamin Gompertz