Portrait of Tony Wrigley

Birthday profile

Tony Wrigley

Tony Wrigley, English historian, demographer, and academic (died 2022)

Born
August 17, 1931
Died
February 24, 2022
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1931

About Tony Wrigley

Sir Edward Anthony Wrigley (17 August 1931 – 24 February 2022) was a British historical demographer. Wrigley and Peter Laslett co-founded the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure in 1964. == Life and career == Wrigley was born in Manchester on 17 August 1931. Wrigley's scholarly works focus on demographic history, and the long-term causes and effects of urbanization and industrialization. Among his many publications, Wrigley is known for the book Continuity, Chance and Change, published in 1988, in which he explained why Malthus was wrong about the law of diminishing returns slowing population growth. His most celebrated work, however, is The Population History of England, 1541-1871, published in 1981 with co-author Roger S. Schofield. Wrigley completed undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Peterhouse, Cambridge between 1949-1958. He was elected as a Fellow of Peterhouse in the latter year and held office until 1979, when he became an Emeritus Fellow there and also Professor of Population Studies at the London School of Economics. He ceased the professorship in 1988 to become a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford and returned to Cambridge as Professor of Economic History for the period 1994-1997. As of 2019, he was an Honorary Fellow at Peterhouse.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Tony Wrigley timeline

  1. Wrigley and Peter Laslett co-founded the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure in 1964.
  2. Among his many publications, Wrigley is known for the book Continuity, Chance and Change, published in 1988, in which he explained why Malthus was wrong about the law of diminishing returns slowing population growth.
  3. He was the recipient of the 2005 Leverhulme Medal and Prize awarded by the British Academy and in the same year became a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College.

The world when Tony Wrigley was born

Tony Wrigley was born in 1931. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1931

  • #1 song"Stardust" – Artie Shaw
  • Top movieFrankenstein
  • Best-selling bookThe Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentKnute Rockne dies in plane crash
  • Top headlineAl Capone convicted of tax evasion
  • Technology milestoneEmpire State Building completed
  • Defining fadJigsaw puzzles
  • Notable inventionElectric razor
  • World population2.10 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHerbert Hoover
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population124.0M

1931 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Tony Wrigley's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19312026
Gas$0.17$3.45/gal
Average home$5,500$435,000
Average income$3,000$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population124.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.