The Galactic population and birth rate of radio pulsars

Abstract

We review current understanding of the underlying, as opposed to the observed, pulsar population. The observed sample is heavily biased by selection effects, so that surveys see less than 10% of all potentially observable pulsars. We compare various techniques used to correct the sample for these biases. By far the most significant recent development has been the discovery of over 700 pulsars in the Parkes Multibeam (PM) survey. This new sample is far less affected by selection effects and we use it to make a preliminary analysis of the Galactic pulsar distribution, finding further evidence for a deficit of pulsars in the inner Galaxy.