An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693)
E229505
An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693) is Edmund Halley’s pioneering demographic study that introduced one of the first life tables and laid foundations for actuarial science and life insurance mathematics.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2040195 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693) Context triple: [Edmund Halley, publication, An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693)]
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A.
Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population
Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population is a 19th-century work by Francis Place that defends and elaborates Thomas Malthus’s population theory with empirical evidence and argument.
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B.
An Essay on the Principle of Population
An Essay on the Principle of Population is an influential 1798 work of political economy and demography arguing that population growth tends to outpace food production, leading to inevitable checks such as famine, disease, and war.
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C.
A Journal of the Plague Year
A Journal of the Plague Year is a historical novel by Daniel Defoe that vividly reconstructs life in London during the 1665 bubonic plague outbreak.
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D.
London Bills of Mortality
London Bills of Mortality were early modern weekly mortality statistics for London, recording deaths and their causes and serving as a crucial source for understanding epidemics and public health, including the Great Plague.
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E.
Annus Mirabilis of 1759
The Annus Mirabilis of 1759 refers to a year during the Seven Years' War in which Britain achieved a series of major military and naval victories that significantly shifted the balance of power in its favor.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693) Target entity description: An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693) is Edmund Halley’s pioneering demographic study that introduced one of the first life tables and laid foundations for actuarial science and life insurance mathematics.
-
A.
Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population
Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population is a 19th-century work by Francis Place that defends and elaborates Thomas Malthus’s population theory with empirical evidence and argument.
-
B.
An Essay on the Principle of Population
An Essay on the Principle of Population is an influential 1798 work of political economy and demography arguing that population growth tends to outpace food production, leading to inevitable checks such as famine, disease, and war.
-
C.
A Journal of the Plague Year
A Journal of the Plague Year is a historical novel by Daniel Defoe that vividly reconstructs life in London during the 1665 bubonic plague outbreak.
-
D.
London Bills of Mortality
London Bills of Mortality were early modern weekly mortality statistics for London, recording deaths and their causes and serving as a crucial source for understanding epidemics and public health, including the Great Plague.
-
E.
Annus Mirabilis of 1759
The Annus Mirabilis of 1759 refers to a year during the Seven Years' War in which Britain achieved a series of major military and naval victories that significantly shifted the balance of power in its favor.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
actuarial science milestone
ⓘ
demographic study ⓘ scientific paper ⓘ |
| aim |
to estimate the degrees of mortality at different ages
ⓘ
to provide a rational basis for valuing life annuities ⓘ |
| author | Edmund Halley ⓘ |
| basedOn | mortality data from the city of Breslau ⓘ |
| contribution |
demonstrated how to compute annuity values from mortality tables
ⓘ
laid foundations for actuarial life contingencies ⓘ laid foundations for modern life insurance pricing ⓘ provided a method to estimate survival probabilities at different ages ⓘ |
| countryOfDataOrigin | Silesia ⓘ |
| era | early modern science ⓘ |
| field |
population studies
ⓘ
probability theory ⓘ statistics ⓘ |
| genre |
scientific article
ⓘ
statistical analysis ⓘ |
| hasAuthorOccupation |
astronomer
ⓘ
demographer ⓘ mathematician ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
early example of applying probability to human life duration
ⓘ
one of the earliest systematic quantitative studies of human mortality ⓘ |
| influenced |
development of actuarial profession
ⓘ
later mortality table construction ⓘ |
| introduced | one of the first life tables based on empirical data ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
actuarial science
ⓘ
demography ⓘ life insurance mathematics ⓘ life tables ⓘ mortality ⓘ |
| methodology |
construction of a life table from age-specific mortality data
ⓘ
use of observed deaths and population counts to infer survival rates ⓘ |
| notableFor |
quantitative rigor in demographic analysis
ⓘ
using relatively complete parish records for a defined population ⓘ |
| precededBy | early mortality analyses based on London Bills of Mortality ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1693 ⓘ |
| publishedIn | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ⓘ |
| publisher | Royal Society ⓘ |
| relatedTo | John Graunt’s work on mortality bills ⓘ |
| timePeriod | late 17th century ⓘ |
| usedDataFrom | Breslau ⓘ |
| usesConcept |
age-specific mortality rate
ⓘ
expected remaining lifetime ⓘ survival probability ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693) Description of subject: An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693) is Edmund Halley’s pioneering demographic study that introduced one of the first life tables and laid foundations for actuarial science and life insurance mathematics.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.