Quantifying Mortality in Hungary: Actuaries and Statisticians (1860s-1910s)

Abstract

The present article studies the construction of statistical knowledge based on mortality tables compiled by government agencies (statisticians) and insurance companies (actuaries) in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Monarchy between the 1860s and the 1910s. The logic and function of mortality statistics were fundamentally distinct in the two contexts. The article argues that statisticians and actuaries constructed their object of analysis and applied mathematical and statistical tools with contrasting aims in mind: social reform for the former, and the profitability of insurance companies for the latter. These aspects not only determined the choice of methods but also their stance on objectivity and their epistemological approach to the whole exercise.