Anders Nicolai Kiær (

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such ...

, 15 September 1838 –

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, 16 April 1919) was a Norwegian

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 ...

who first proposed that a representative sample rather than a complete enumerating survey could and should be used to collect information about a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

. He was born in

as the son of ship-owner Niels Andersen Kiær (1802–1887), and brother of physician and historian Frantz Casper Kiær. He graduated as

cand.jur. Candidate ( or ) is the name of various academic degrees, which are today mainly awarded in Scandinavia. The degree title was phased out in much of Europe through the 1999 Bologna Process, which has re-formatted academic degrees in Europe. The de ...

in 1860, and was hired as head of the statistics department in the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

in 1868. In 1877 he was appointed director of the newly appointed office

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway (, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every year on its web site. All rele ...

, staying in this position until 1913. Before 1882 he functioned as a co-director together with Jakob Mohn. Anders Nicolai Kiær was a nephew of Hans Andersen Kiær and first cousin of businessmen Hans Theodor and Anders F. Kiær. The latter founded the company And. H. Kiær & Co.

References

Publications

The Representative Method of Statistical Surveys
New edition with English Translation at the Centenary of the Central Bureau of Statistics) Includes bibliography (1869–1919) 1838 births 1919 deaths Norwegian statisticians Directors of government agencies of Norway People from Drammen Anders Nicolai {{statistician-stub