Joseph Adna Hill (1860–1938) was an American statistician.

Biography

Joseph Adna Hill was born at Stewartstown, New Hampshire on May 5, 1860. He was descended from "an elite, old-line New England family," and attended many well-regarded educational institutions. After graduating from Phillips Exeter, he attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, graduating in 1885, and completed his graduate studies at the University of Halle (PhD) in 1892. He published ''The English Income Tax with Special Reference to Administration and Method of Assessment'' (1899). In 1899 he took on statistical work for the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, of which he became chief statistician in 1909. In this connection he had charge of census reports on

child labor Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation w ...

illiteracy Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

, marriage and divorce, women at work, and a report for the Immigration Commission on occupations of immigrants. He was the author of many census reports on child labor, the insane, divorce, and kindred subjects. Hill was particularly interested in race and nationality and added questions and categories to the census in both 1910 and 1920 that would record more detailed information on those subjects, among them, returning to use the racial designation of "

mulatto ( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...

" that had been removed from the 1900 census. He was appointed Assistant Director of the Census in 1921. Although revised by Edward Vermilye Huntington, Hill is credited with the conception of the Method of Equal Proportions, or Huntington–Hill method of apportionment of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to the states, as a function of their populations determined in the U.S. Census. This mathematical algorithm has been used in the U.S. since 1941 and is currently the method used. He died from a heart attack at his home in Washington, D.C., on December 12, 1938.

References

External links

* American statisticians 1860 births 1938 deaths Harvard University alumni Presidents of the American Statistical Association People from Coös County, New Hampshire {{US-statistician-stub