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The Case for Census Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2016

G. H. Ryan
G. H. Ryan
Affiliation:
British Empire Mutual Life Assurance Company Institute of Actuaries
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Extract

On the invitation of the President, I have undertaken, not without reluctance, to open the present Session with some observations upon the varied and interesting questions arising out of our Census system. The reluctance is to be explained as being due not to the disinclination to accept any task that may be thought to be of service to our Institute, but to the feeling that I have perhaps too readily consented to fill the part in the proceedings of the Session which has on some previous occasions been upheld by the President himself in a second inaugural address. The great interest excited by our President's address twelve months ago will cause legitimate regret that he should have ceded the place of honour and responsibility to a humbler member of the craft, thus adopting a course which, though also sanctioned by custom, leaves our anticipations unsatisfied. My fellow-members will be prompt to realise that this circumstance increases the anxieties with which I enter upon the subject of this evening's discussion, and will grant me that indulgence always extended to those who find themselves in a position to which they are unaccustomed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Institute of Actuaries , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , January 1902 , pp. 329 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © Institute and Faculty of Actuaries 1901

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References

page 331 note * Report of Census Committee, 1890, p. vi.

page 335 note * Extract from letter to the author, under date tie 19th October 1901, from the Town Clerk of Eastbourne:—“According to the Summary published by the Registrar-General of the estimated population of England and Wales, Eastbourne was shown, at the middle of 1899, to have a population of 51, 227. This figure was, I understand, arrived at on the assumption that the population of Eastbourne increased in the same proportion as during the previous decade, and I am told it is the method which the Registrar-General has followed for the past 100 years in arriving at the estimated population of towns. When the prospectus of the Eastbourne Corporation Stock (Third Issue) was publishedin January 1901, the Registrar-General's summary of the estimated population at the middle of 1900 had not beenpublished, but, following his method of calculation, the population at the beginning of 1901 would certainly have beenmore than 54,000, whichwe stated was the Registrar-General's estimate. When the summary was published, we found that he only estimated thepopulation of Eastbourne at the middle of 1900 at 47,629. As a matter of fact, the Census, which was published still later, showed that the population in April 1901 was only 43,337. On making enquiriesof the Registrar- Generalas to the reason why he should estimatethe population at the middle of 1899 at 51,227, while at the middle of 1900 it should be put at 47,629, we wereinformed that hehad corrected his estimateby allowingfor the births and deaths and numberof houses built, &c.”

page 337 note * J.R.S.S., vol. lvii, p. 382.

page 339 note * J.R.S.S., vol. lvii, p. 365.

page 344 note * See “Census Taking”, by Dr. , Dudfield, J.I.A., xxxv, pp. 341 et seq Google Scholar.

page 352 note * The applicability of the Hollerith machine to the classification of insurance statistics in connection with the investigation of mortality experience and actuarial valuations is a subject that demands special and separate consideration.

page 352 note † J.R.S.S., lvii, 658.

page 352 note ‡ 12 Hollerith machines were used in the Austrian Census of 1890.

page 352 note § J.R.S.S., lvii, 683.

page 353 note * J.R.S.S., lvii, 366.

page 353 note † J.R.S.S., lvii, 341.

page 353 note ‡ J.R.S.S., lxiii, 50.