The History of Statistics

How in the world? What in the world? When in the world? Where in the world? 

It is said that modern statistics started sometime in the late 16th century by a man named William Petty (1623-1687). He left behind a little piece of his intellect called "Political Arithmetic" with which its goal was to document all natural, social and political components
of a state by numbers in order to have a sound basis for decisions and,
thus, avoid political controversies. His masterpiece was to surface three years after his passing.


Also stated is the fact that Petty was largely influenced by his good friend John Graunt who published a book called "Natural and Political Observations on the London Bills of Mortality" in 1662. This earned him the reputation of being the founder of Demographics - the statistical data of a population,especially those showing average age, income, education, etc.

It can also be said that statistics started earlier on, way back to 1749. But because of the many different changes made and added to the description of "statistics" over time, it could have been an entirely different thing from what we know it to be today. 

As stated in the wikipedia article on History of Statistics:

In early times, the meaning was restricted to information about states. This was later extended to include all collections of information of all types, and later still it was extended to include the analysis and interpretation of such data. In modern terms, "statistics" means both sets of collected information, as in national accounts and temperature records, and analytical work which requires statistical inference. 

In other words, the things a "statistician" would do to be called such is different from what makes a "statistician" TODAY.


Take William Petty for example, he was considered a "statistician" in his time but he only employed simple averages - quantitative data. In today's standard he would be far from it, because as the dictionary says:

statistics is the science that deals with thecollection, classification, analysis, and interpretation ofnumerical facts or data, and that, by use of mathematicaltheories of probability, imposes order and regularity onaggregates of more or less disparate elements. 

The earliest writing to surface on statistics was said to be in the 9th century. Al-Kindi, probably already part of the ground from whence he came, wrote of how to use statistics and frequency analysis to decipher encrypted messages, this was the birth of both statistics and cryptanalysis.


There are a lot of ifs and buts as to when Statistics started.
But what is the probability of me finding out when and who really started it all? 
Probably next to zero!


In conclusion, it is safe to say that statistics could have started as early as the first human learned how to count, be it with his fingers or in numbers. 


The early man wondered to himself, "why am I wearing forest brush for clothing?". And he pondered, "How many others are there like me?". "Where do they live and how far apart are we from each other?". "What are the chances I will see someone like me?", said the man, AND BOOOOOM a beautiful lady out in the distance. The man's jaws drop, and he thinks "Will I ever have a  chance with her?". BOOM, they're together!


And so, man set out on his journey to greatness...
by boldly predicting his CHANCES in life and...
by deciding based on careful CALCULATION.