(1) The likelihood that a life insured will die sooner than statistically expected. (2) The likelihood that an annuitant will live longer than statistically expected.

The risk of death. The risk carried by a life insurance company and sometimes called the pure insurance risk. The degree of risk is the difference between the policy reserve (usually equal to the cash value of a permanent life policy) and the face amount of the policy.

The mortality risk for a cohort over a given time interval is the number of people dying in the interval divided by the number alive at the beginning of the interval. For a given age in a life table, this is q(x) = d(x)/l(x).