History knows him, however, as the first epidemiologist and demographer. John Graunt's analysis in Natural and Political Observations Made Upon the Bills of Mortality consisted of a compilaiton and an analysis of data from the Bills of Mortality.The Bills of Mortality were documents offering information about the births, deaths, and causes of death in London parishes, printed and distributed weekly on Thursdays (in addition to an annual report released in December). When the King became ill and was not looking to business very closely, Graunt was dropped from the member-ship of the RSL. Born in London, the eldest of seven or eight children of Henry and Mary Graunt. What little is known of his life may be found in Aubrey's Brief Life of John Graunt and in the lecture notes of Karl Pearson on the history of statistics. John Graunt, 17th century citizen of London, thought of himself as a haberdasher. The “Bills of Mortality” provided weekly lists of burials and baptisms in the parishes of Lon-don. John Graunt (24 April 1620 – 18 April 1674) was one of the first demographers, though by profession he was a haberdasher. According to Karl Pearson, he was the first statistician, the first to deal with vital statistics, and the first statistician to become a fellow of the Royal Society of London. In London, in 1662, 350 years ago, John Graunt published a booklet which was the beginning of medical statistics, of epidemiology and of medical demography. John Graunt's analysis of the London Bills of Mortality of 1662 is famous as a pioneering contribution to the study of human populations. John Graunt was one of the first demographers, though by profession he was a haberdasher. However, the origins of modern demography are usually traced back to John Graunt’s quantita-tive analyses of the “Bills of Mortality” published in 1662 [5]. 1 Graunt brought to light a diversity of facts about human life and disease that had not previously been appreciated. John Graunt’s Life Table —Thompson 4 the Royal Society of London. In 1662 John Graunt, a London haberdasher, published his magnum opus, Natural and Political Observations …Made upon the Bills of Mortality, and thereby established the field of epidemiology. He made his mark because he grasped the potential in an overlooked data source of his day-the weekly Bills of Mortality-and he mined this resource admirably in his only scientific work. But comparatively little attention has been given to his highly influential discovery that the numbers of men and women were evenly balanced. Graunt used these data to examine the sex ratio at birth and to estimate the population of London. Graunt is spoken of several times in Pepy’s Diary. 1855. His father was a draper who had moved to London from Hampshire. Background Graunt was born on April 24, 1620, in London, England, the eldest of seven or eight children of Henry and Mary Graunt. John Graunt was the true father of statistics. Education Nothing is known about Graunt's education. His father was a draper who had moved to London from Hampshire.