Biography of william farr

Farr was the first Compiler of Abstracts at the General Register Office in England. The General Register Office was created by an act of Parliament in 1836 to record the civil registration of births, deaths, and marriages in England and Wales.

Around that time, information on cause of death was collected along with age and occupation for all deaths. Farr’s appointment began in 1839, and he remained in the General Register Office for 40 years, where he continued the tradition that began with John Graunt of using routinely collected vital statistics to learn about disease occurrence.

Farr occupied himself with many of the same issues that Graunt addressed.

Biography of william farr

He studied demographic issues of population size, sex ratio at birth, fecundity, and time trends. He tested the theories that had been proposed by Malthus on population growth. He constructed actuarial tables, examined infant mortality, and, following in the footsteps of Ramazzini, studied the relation bet