Jacques Bertillon (11 November 1851 – 4 July 1922) was a French
statistician
A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors.
It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...
and
demographer.
Born in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, Bertillon was the son of statistician
Louis Bertillon and the older brother of
Alphonse Bertillon. He was educated as a
physician but turned to
statistical analysis. In 1880 he wrote ''La Statistique humaine en France''. In 1891-93 he chaired a committee that introduced the Bertillon Classification of Causes of Death, which was adopted by several countries; it was the precursor to today's
International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD) which continues to be published by the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
. By comparing statistics from different European countries he discovered the correlation between suicide rates and divorces, claiming that both phenomena were associated with social disequilibrium, ideas influencing
Émile Durkheim in his work ''
Suicide''.
Bertillon married the physician
Caroline Schultze; they had two daughters.
He died in Paris on 4 July 1922. Anticipating his death, he prepared a letter to several newspaper editors which stated "When you receive this I will no longer exist," and respectfully requested an obituary for himself.
References
External links
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1851 births
1922 deaths
French statisticians
French demographers
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