The Partnership of Official Statistics and Academia: The International Context

Abstract

In the context of the bicentenary of Stefano Franscini’s birth in 1796 it is appropriate to launch my review with a historical reference even though it does not concern this famous Swiss statistician whose 200th birthday is celebrated in 1996. My historical reference pertains to two other great scientists, one English: Edmund Halley (1656–1742), and one German: Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716). Also, my reference precedes the times of Franscini more than a century. These two leading scholars of their times got involved in what was probably the first ever international statistical cooperation recorded in history. For insurance activities, which were spreading in the 17th century, there was a need for basic statistical information. Annuity calculations, in particular, required knowledge about the mortality of the population by age as analyzed by John Graunt in 1662 in London. However, the shortage of statistical information about the subject forced Edmund Halley to obtain from Gottfried Leibniz data from the city of Breslau for his study (1693). Leibniz complied with Halley’s request and the German data sent to England has served for a long time (for well over a century) as the basis of mortality tables needed for insurance purposes and annuity calculations in England and elsewhere. I am referring to this occasion in order to show that the involvement of academia (and what high level of academia!) has been there from the very beginnings of international statistical exchanges.