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Logo printed in the Transactions, 1837.

The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK. It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London (LSS). 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.

Instrumental in founding the LSS were Richard Jones (economist), Charles Babbage, Adolphe Quetelet, William Whewell and Thomas Malthus. Among its famous members was Florence Nightingale, who was the society's first female member in 1858. Notable RSS presidents have included William Beveridge and Harold Wilson.

The LSS became the RSS (Royal Statistical Society) by Royal Charter in 1887, and merged with the Institute of Statisticians in 1993. Today the society has 7,200 members around the world, of whom some 1,500 are professionally qualified, with the status of Chartered Statistician (CStat). In January 2009, the RSS received Licensed Body status within the UK Science Council, and since February 2009 Chartered Statisticians have been able to apply for Chartered Scientist (CSci) status.

Unusually among professional societies, all members of the RSS are known as "Fellows" — fellowship is not a mark of distinction. Before the 1993 merger with the Institute of Statisticians, Fellows often used the post-nominal letters FSS. This merger enabled the Society to take on the role of a professional body as well as that of a learned society; use of the unearned FSS qualification was viewed as inappropriate ^[1] and strongly discouraged, and it became less common. The post-nominal letters FRSS are sometimes seen, but this is a simple mistake.

The Society has been particularly engaged with the passage of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, having long argued for legislation on statistics.

The RSS organises an annual conference; the two most recent being held at the University of Nottingham in September 2008, and the University of Edinburgh in September 2009, at which the Society's 175th anniversary was celebrated. The Society awards Guy Medals in Gold, Silver and Bronze, in honour of William Guy. It also publishes the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 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.

The University of Plymouth was selected by the Royal Statistical Society in October 2008 to become the host institution for its Centre for Statistical Education from August 2009.

The RSS team reached the finals of University Challenge: The Professionals 2006, where they were beaten 230 to 125 by a team from the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

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^ Professional membership pages on the RSS website: http://www.rss.org.uk/main.asp?page=1254 and http://www.rss.org.uk/main.asp?page=1292

[0] Professional membership pages on the RSS website: http://www.rss.org.uk/main.asp?page=1254 and http://www.rss.org.uk/main.asp?page=1292

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