Joseph Adna Hill (1860–1938) was an American statistician, born at Stewartstown, New Hampshire. Hill 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 Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, graduating in 1885, and completed his graduate studies at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university ...

(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 (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

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

child labor Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such ...

illiteracy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

, 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 racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...

" that had been removed from the 1900 census. He was appointed Assistant Director of the Census in 1921. Although revised by

Edward Vermilye Huntington Edward Vermilye Huntington (April 26, 1874November 25, 1952) was an American mathematician. Biography Huntington was awarded the B.A. and the M.A. by Harvard University in 1895 and 1897, respectively. After two years' teaching at Williams College ...

, Hill is credited with the conception of the Method of Equal Proportions or Huntington–Hill method of

apportionment The legal term apportionment (french: apportionement; Mediaeval Latin: , derived from la, portio, share), also called delimitation, is in general the distribution or allotment of proper shares, though may have different meanings in different c ...

of seats in the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

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.

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