Who was Milovan Zoričić?

We continue to celebrate 150 years of Croatian statistics

We have already written about the establishment of the first statistical office on the territory of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, and it is time to present more closely the first director Milovan Zoričić[1].

Born into a respectable family of lawyers in 1850, and as a lawyer himself, he always had a keen interest in economic sciences, which include statistics. Since he was extremely curious and considered collecting and monitoring statistical data as important, his first move in this new role was a trip to Vienna and Budapest to study the work of their statistical offices.

He tried to incorporate everything he saw and learned there into his fieldwork, which lasted for a full 40 years, thus leaving a significant mark on Croatian statistics. During his studies, he was also involved in publishing, which is evident, considering his time in the statistical office was marked with a valuable publishing activity. He wrote and published extensively, keeping in mind that the data he collected and processed were valuable material that needed to be publicly available. Due to a legal obligation, but also thanks to his engagement, today, among other things, we can read about the professions and occupations of residents of Croatia and Slavonia and the former Military Frontier, in the publication "Population and Livestock Census of 31 December 1880". In it, we can read about how 44.97% of the "present citizenry" engaged in agriculture and forestry, while a very small proportion of people, between 1% and 3%, engaged in other occupations such as mining, crafts or trade.

He had great ambition, however, the funding allocated to the Royal National Statistics Office was somewhat small. However, his persistence, perseverance and precisely that ambition, with the support of his colleague and lawyer Fran Vrbanić, resulted in a wealth of valuable statistical data that mean a great deal, even to this day. A true example of this is the creation of the first Statistical Yearbook for the year 1874, published in 1876, just a year after the establishment of the statistical office.

He held the position of assessor for 10 years, until 16 February 1885, when a new law on the reorganization of the office was passed. This made Zoričić the head of the office, and ten years later, in 1895, he was appointed director. He was a member of the International Statistical Institute, the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, as well as the Croatian Medical Association, or Sbora liečnikâ kraljevina Hrvatske i Slavonije[2]. He died on 30 October 1912.

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