Parabolic fractal distribution

In the parabolic fractal distribution, the logarithm of the frequency or size of entities in a population is a quadratic polynomial of the logarithm of the rank. This can markedly improve the fit over a simple power-law relationship (see external link below).

In a number of cases, there is a so-called King effect where the highest-ranked item has a significantly greater frequency or size than the model predicts on the basis of the other items.