Achenwall, Gottfried

Related Category: Political Science: Biographies

(gôt´frēt äkh´ənväl), 1719–72, German statistician and political scientist. He used the term Statistik for the first time in his Staatsverfassung der heutigen vornehmsten europäischen Reiche und Völker im Grundrisse [the political constitution of the present principal European countries and peoples] (1749). By the term he meant a comprehensive description of the social, political, and economic features of a state.