April 24 – Happy Birthday, John Graunt

nPostednon April 24, 2014

At the time that Graunt lived,
the European fashion for
hats was the capotain, seen
here. Both men and women
wore capotain hats.

nToday’snbirthday boy made and sold hats—in other words, he was anhaberdasher.

nInam not writing about him because of his haberdashery, though. As a matter ofnfact, if ALL he ever did was make and sell hats, I never would havenheard of John Graunt. He did, after all, live about 400 years ago!

nNo,nthe reason I am writing about Graunt—the reason he is famous—isnthat he was one of the world’s first demographers.

nDemographynis the study of human populations through statistics, such as numbersnof births, deaths, and marriages, amount of income, and so on.nGraunt, born on this date in 1620, was able to use more than ancentury’s worth of records of baptisms and deaths, kept in Englishnchurches, to answer questions about death rates. He discovered thatndeath rates differed for men and women, and that death rates differednfor city and rural populations.

nBecausenhe looked at the causes of death, Graunt is also considered one ofnthe first experts on epidemiology (the study of the spread of diseases). He even tried to help England’s king create ansystem of warning of the onset and spread of bubonic plague, using statistics; even though the system never was completed, Graunt’snefforts did create the first statistically based estimation of thenpopulation of London.

nGrauntnpresented his demographic studies to the Royal Society. Apparently many members ofnthe Royal Society wanted nothing to do with Graunt and did not want a mere haberdasher to be elected to their august organization. But Charles II, Kingnof England, brought Graunt into the society despite their reluctance.

nUnfortunately,nGraunt lived at a time when religious differences were tearing apartnthe nation; Graunt had converted to Catholicism shortly before the GreatnFire of London, and when the fire was blamed on Catholics, Graunt lost his job. He ended his life very poor, suffering from some of the diseases he maynhave studied.

nExplorendemography

nIn the almost four centuries since Graunt, improvements in medicine and hygiene have improved our lives and health. However, all is not equal all over the world. Check out thisngraph of life expectancy (above), which shows that women tend to outlive mennand the not-at-all-surprising fact that people in richer nations tendnto outlive people in poorer nations. The Wikipedia articlenthat provides the graph also gives the rankings and the hard numbers.nTry to guess where your own nation will appear in the chart (#1? #7?) before you check it out.

nChartsBinnhas a map that shows the daily calorie intake per capita (pernperson), all over the world.

nDemographicnstudies often tell us sad truths. I looked at this bar graph (below) showingnthe income gap by race in my own nation, the United States. I hopednthat the fact that the numbers were from ten years ago would meannthat the gap had shrunk…

n…butnthen I spotted this graph (below) of the income gap by race and gender, and Inrealized that the gap has probably grown. This graph shows growth innthe income gap along racial and gender lines for the last forty yearsnof the last fifty years, and I fear that the trend has continued! Cannyou discover whether or not the gap has widened even more from 2004nto 2014?

The dates along the bottom of the graph range from ’68 (1968) to ’08 (2008),
with each number being two years beyond the last.

The average annual income is shown by the horizontal bars, with $10K
being the bottommost line, then $20K, $30K, $40K, $50K, and the
top line being $60K.
In other words, each horizontal line is separated from the one
below by ten thousand dollars.