February 27, 2012 | News
Happy Birthday, Demography!
Demograficheskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar´, D.I. Valentei ed. Moscow "Sovetskaia entsiklopediia" 1985, p.608
On February 27th, 1662, John Graunt presented to the Royal Society the first life table, which he produced from data collected in London. This date is considered the birthday of demography.
John Graunt is seen as the founder of demography. Graunt, along with William Petty, developed early human statistical and census methods that later provided a framework for modern demography. He is credited with producing the first life table in 1662, giving probabilities of survival to each age. Graunt is also considered as one of the first experts in epidemiology, since his famous book was concerned mostly with public health statistics.
His book “Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality” (1662) used analysis of the mortality rolls in early modern London as Charles II and other officials attempted to create a system to warn of the onset and spread of bubonic plague in the city. Though the system was never truly created, Graunt's work in studying the rolls resulted in the first statistically-based estimation of the population of London.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “John Graunt” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.