ENGINEER

William Playfair

1759 - 1823

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William Playfair (22 September 1759 – 11 February 1823) was a Scottish engineer and political economist. The founder of graphical methods of statistics, Playfair invented several types of diagrams: in 1786 he introduced the line, area and bar chart of economic data, and in 1801 he published what were likely the first pie chart and circle graph, used to show part-whole relations. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William Playfair has received more than 419,809 page views. His biography is available in 21 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 20 in 2019). William Playfair is the 150th most popular engineer (up from 188th in 2019), the 1,883rd most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 2,344th in 2019) and the 16th most popular British Engineer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 420k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 54.33

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 21

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.70

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.38

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among ENGINEERS

Among engineers, William Playfair ranks 150 out of 389. Before him are Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, Kerim Kerimov, Alec Issigonis, Yahya Ayyash, Joseph Strauss, and Georgy Babakin. After him are Mikhail Yangel, Alexei Tupolev, Mstislav Keldysh, Adolphe Alphand, Léon Charles Thévenin, and Henryk Dembiński.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1759, William Playfair ranks 22. Before him are Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg, Jacques Cathelineau, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, François Devienne, Johann Christian Reil, and Aloys I, Prince of Liechtenstein. After him are William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Franz Krommer, James Edward Smith, Ferenc Kazinczy, Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths, and Matsudaira Sadanobu. Among people deceased in 1823, William Playfair ranks 19. Before him are Rafael del Riego, Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Markos Botsaris, Princess Amélie Louise of Arenberg, and Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski. After him are Iosif Igelström, Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, Zacharias Werner, Daniel Steibelt, Grace Elliott, and Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen.

Others Born in 1759

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Others Deceased in 1823

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, William Playfair ranks 1,883 out of 8,785. Before him are Lilian Harvey (1906), Steve Howe (1947), Alexander William Williamson (1824), W. Montgomery Watt (1909), Noël Coward (1899), and William of Malmesbury (1080). After him are Clive Burr (1957), Donald Crisp (1882), David Lodge (1935), John Smyth (1570), Ray Winstone (1957), and Walter Crane (1845).

Others born in United Kingdom

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Among ENGINEERS In United Kingdom

Among engineers born in United Kingdom, William Playfair ranks 16. Before him are George Cayley (1773), Hertha Ayrton (1854), Adrian Newey (1958), Robert Stephenson (1803), John Bagot Glubb (1897), and Patrick Head (1946). After him are John Loudon McAdam (1756), John Smeaton (1724), John Hughes (1814), André Waterkeyn (1917), W. Ross Ashby (1903), and Frederick W. Lanchester (1868).

British born Engineers

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