The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British

learned society A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

for

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

, a

professional body A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) is a group that usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in ...

for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good.

History

The society was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London, though a perhaps unrelated London Statistical Society was in existence at least as early as 1824. At that time there were many provincial statistics societies throughout Britain, but most have not survived. The Manchester Statistical Society (which is older than the LSS) is a notable exception. The associations were formed with the object of gathering information about society. The idea of statistics referred more to political knowledge rather than a series of methods. The members called themselves " statists" and the original aim was "...procuring, arranging and publishing facts to illustrate the condition and prospects of society" and the idea of interpreting data, or having opinions, was explicitly excluded. The original seal had the motto ''Aliis Exterendum'' (for others to thresh out, i.e. interpret) but this separation was found to be a hindrance and the motto was dropped in later logos. During its founding time, political economy as understood back then was concerned with the principles (causal models) of economy formulated in words, while statistics was concerned with collecting and tabulating quantitative data of economy, without additional interpretation. During 1830s, it concentrated on the condition of England question. By the 1840s it changed focus to the sanitary movement. It was many decades before mathematics was regarded as part of the statistical project.

Fellows

Fellowship of the Royal Statistical Society is open to anyone with an interest in statistics. It is not restricted to only those with high achievement within the discipline. This distinguishes it from other learned societies, where usually the fellow grade is the highest grade in that discipline.

Key figures

Instrumental in founding the Statistical Society of London were Richard Jones,

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

Adolphe Quetelet Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet FRSF or FRSE (; 22 February 1796 – 17 February 1874) was a Belgian- French astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist who founded and directed the Brussels Observatory and was influential ...

William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved distinction in both poetry and mathematics. The breadth of Whewell's endeavours is ...

Thomas Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English economist, cleric, and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...

, and William Henry Sykes. Among its famous members was

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...

, who was the society's first female member in 1858. Stella Cunliffe was the first female president. Other notable RSS presidents have included

William Beveridge William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was a Progressivism, progressive, social reformer, and eugenicist who played a central role ...

Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who a ...

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

, and David Cox. Honorary Secretaries include

Gerald Goodhardt Gerald Goodhardt (5 April 1930 - 7 May 2020) was a British marketing scientist. Career Goodhardt began his career working as a statistician for Attwood Panels, and later Aske Research with Andrew S. C. Ehrenberg. From 1981-95 he was Sir John E ...

(1982–88).

Royal Charter

The LSS became the RSS (Royal Statistical Society) by

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...

in 1887, and merged with the Institute of Statisticians in 1993. The merger enabled the society to take on the role of a professional body as well as that of a learned society. As of 2025, the society claims more than 11,000 members around the world, of whom some 900 are professionally qualified, with the status of Chartered Statistician (CStat). In January 2009, the RSS received Licensed Body status from the UK Science Council to award Chartered Scientist status. Since February 2009 the society has awarded Chartered Scientist status to suitably qualified members. Unusually among professional societies, all members of the RSS are known as " Fellows". Fellowship is nowadays not usually used by post-merger members as a

post-nominal Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters, or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, an academic degree, accreditation ...

mark of distinction. However, before the 1993 merger with the Institute of Statisticians, Fellows often used the post-nominal letters FSS. Before the merger, Fellows were required to have a statistical qualification. The alternative route was to be proposed by two Fellows. The nomination paper then had to be approved by the

Council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

. After the merger these requirements were dropped and all the previous members of the Institute of Statisticians became Fellows as well. Since then, use by new members of their unearned post-nominal FSS qualification was viewed as inappropriate and strongly discouraged, and it became less common.

Structure

The RSS is currently based in Shoreditch, having previously been based in Errol Street, EC1, in the

London Borough of Islington The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough, borough in North London, England. Forming part of Inner London, Islington has an estimated population of 215,667. It was formed in 1965, under the London Government Act 1963, by the amalg ...

close to the boundary with the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, between Old Street and Barbican stations. The society has various local groups in the UK, together with a wide range of topic-related sections and special interest groups. Each of these sections and groups organises lectures and seminars on statistical topics.

Functions

The society was particularly engaged with the passage of the

Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (c18) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). It came into force in April 2008. Sir Michael Scholar was appointed as the first Chai ...

, having long argued for legislation on statistics.

Events

The RSS organises an annual conference. Among the society's awards are the Guy Medals in gold, silver and bronze, in honour of William Guy. The RSS team reached the finals of ''

University Challenge ''University Challenge'' is a British television quiz programme which first aired in 1962. ''University Challenge'' aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC ...

: The Professionals 2006'', where they were beaten 230 to 125 by a team from the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

Publications

The society publishes the ''

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society The ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of statistics. It comprises three series and is published by Oxford University Press for the Royal Statistical Society. History The Statistical Society of ...

'', which currently consists of three separate series of journals whose contents include papers presented at ordinary meetings of the society, namely Series A (''Statistics in Society''), Series B (''Statistical Methodology'') and Series C (''Applied Statistics''), as well as a general audience magazine called '' Significance'' published in conjunction with the American Statistical Association. In September 2024, the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence journal was launched by the society. In September 2013, the society established ''StatsLife'', an online magazine website that featured news, interviews and opinion from the world of statistics and data, though this appears to have been discontinued.

References

External links

*
MacTutor: The Royal Statistical Society

{{authority control Organizations established in 1834 Statistical organisations in the United Kingdom Learned societies of the United Kingdom Statistical Society Organisations based in the London Borough of Islington 1834 establishments in the United Kingdom Organisations based in London with royal patronage Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society