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43
General
The term 'statistics' covers all types of numerical descriptions
of social, economic and biological phenomena and, as a method
of comparing, differentiating and classifying material and data,
brings intelligent coherence to an otherwise incomprehensible mass
of minutiae.
It is conventional to consider vital statistics' as the continuous
numerical recording, in a large number of lives, of
marriages, births, sickness and deaths as a means whereby the
health and growth of a community may be measured. Inevitably,
of course, this leads to the observation of other aspects of society
which influence life, its reproductivity and its vitality. This whole
field is, nowadays, referred to as the science of demography.
Early in the sixteenth century, it became evident that, for
legal and other purposes, there should be some permanent and
formal recording of baptisms, marriages and deaths in order not
only to provide proof of age but to deter bigamy and guard
against infanticide. In 1538, in the reign of Henry VIII, clergy
were required to keep weekly records of these events but, except
for a brief period from 1653 to the Restoration, this recording was
not statutory and did not become so until the Births and Deaths
Registration Act, of 1836. This Act established the General
Register Office and divided the country into registration districts
for the specific purpose of the registration of births and deaths.
Penalties for non-registration were not imposed until the Act of
1874. Legislation is now consolidated in the Births and Deaths
Registration Act, 1953, the Marriage Act, 1949, and the Registration
Service Act, 1953.
An essential preliminary to any statistical appraisal is the
'counting of heads' and this is achieved by the decennial Census.
Gregory King (1648-1712), working from tax returns of houses,
made the earliest attempt to enumerate the population. However,
it was not until 1801 that a national Census was initiated and,
with the exception of 1941, has been repeated every 10 years
since. At first, the Census merely covered the recording of sexes
with a rough classification of occupation. Not until the Census
of 1851, after the establishment of the General Register Office in
1839, was appropriate detailed data sought and correct analyses
made of Census figures. Since then, the Census form has become
progressively more comprehensive and consequently more valuable
as a statistical instrument.