Edmond Halley has the ability to reduce large amounts of data to a meaningful order.

His map of the world, showing the distribution of prevailing winds over the oceans, had in 1686 been the first meteorological chart to be published.

His mortality tables for the city of Breslau, published in 1693, comprise one of the first attempts to relate mortality and age in a population; as such, it influences the future development of actuarial tables in life insurance.