Carmen A. Miró (19 April 1919 – 18 September 2022) was a Panamanian sociologist,

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 Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

. She has been called Latin America's top expert in population, and "probably the most outstanding figure that the Panamanian social sciences have produced".

Life and career

Miró was the daughter of poet

Ricardo Miró Ricardo Miró Denis (November 5, 1883 in Panama City, Panama – March 2, 1940) was a Panamanian writer and is considered Panama's national poet. He traveled to Bogotá at the age of fifteen to study painting, but was forced to return to Panama i ...

. She studied business at the

University of Panama The University of Panama () is a public university in Panama City, Panama. It was founded on October 7, 1935. Initially, it had 175 students learning education, commerce, natural sciences, pharmacy, pre-engineering or law. , it had 74,059 student ...

, and went on to graduate studies at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. From 1946 to 1956, she headed the Panamanian Department of Statistics and the Census. During this time she was also a professor of statistics at the University of Panama. In 1957 she became the founding director of the Center for Latin American Studies of Demography of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

(CELADE), now the Population Division of the

United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC, ECLAC or ''CEPAL'', in Spanish: ''Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe'') is a United Nations regional commission to encourage economic cooper ...

. She continued to direct CELADE until 1976. After four years at

El Colegio de México El Colegio de México, A.C. (commonly known as Colmex, English: The College of Mexico) is a Mexican institute of higher education, specializing in teaching and research in social sciences and humanities. The college was founded in 1940 by the Me ...

she returned to Panama, where she became affiliated with the Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos (CELA) "Justo Arosemena". In 1984, she stood for election as vice president of Panama, but was unsuccessful. Miró

turned 100 A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

in April 2019, and died on 18 September 2022, at the age of 103.Muere Carmen Miró, pionera en estudios demográficos en Panamá
18 September 2022

Recognition

In 1953, Miró was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The designation of ASA Fellow has been a sign ...

"for her many contributions to the greater effectiveness of the recent Censuses of the Americas" and for creating "a comprehensive and useful statistical system for her country". Miró has honorary doctorates from the

University of Havana The University of Havana (UH; ) is a public university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Founded on 5 January 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originall ...

, from the

National University of Córdoba The National University of Córdoba (), is a public university located in the city of Córdoba, Argentina. Founded in 1613, the university is the oldest in Argentina, the third oldest university of the Americas, with the first university being ...

, and from the

Latin American Social Sciences Institute The Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (, or FLACSO) is a graduate-only university and inter-governmental autonomous organization for Latin America dedicated to research, teaching and spreading of social sciences. Headquartered in Costa R ...

. In 1984 she won the United Nations World Population Prize. In 2016

gave her their Daniel Cosío Villegas Prize. An anthology of her collected writings was published in 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miro, Carmen A. 1919 births 2022 deaths Alumni of the London School of Economics Demographers Fellows of the American Statistical Association Academic staff of El Colegio de México Panamanian women centenarians Panamanian sociologists Panamanian women academics University of Panama alumni Panamanian women sociologists Women statisticians Panamanian expatriates in the United Kingdom