It is well known that the breakage population balance equation provides effective, yet simple, means to analyze the change of molecular weight distribution during polymer degradation processes. Although the case of random scission has been studied extensively, this is not true for the (equally important from the practical point of view) case of chain-end scission. The general mathematical analysis of this problem is the scope of the present work. It includes the analytical solution of the discrete (exact) problem and the derivation, as well as, the solution of the continuous, discrete-continuous and corrected continuous (approximate) models. Moreover, an assessment of the commonly used method of moments, for the solution of the particular problem is reported. Finally, suggestions are made for the most effective (in terms of computational effort and accuracy) method for the solution of the problem according to its parameters value. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.