A statistical study of 233 pulsar proper motions

We present and analyse a catalogue of 233 pulsars with proper motion measurements. The sample contains a wide variety of pulsars including recycled objects and those associated with globular clusters or supernova remnants. After taking the most precise proper motions for those pulsars for which multiple measurements are available, the majority of the proper motions (58%) are derived from pulsar timing methods, 41% using interferometers and the remaining 1% using optical telescopes. Many of the 1-D and 2-D speeds (referring to speeds measured in one coordinate only and the magnitudes of the transverse velocities respectively) derived from these measurements are somewhat lower than earlier estimates because of…