Frederick Ludwig Hoffman (May 2, 1865 – February 23, 1946) was an American statistician known for his work on public health issues.

At the request of his single mother, who was now living in difficult financial circumstances, Frederick began a four-year commercial apprenticeship with various merchants in north-west Germany.

Since Frederick saw no further professional and personal future for himself in Germany, he emigrated to the United States at the end of 1884.

The work was motivated by a concern about issues of race,[citation needed] and also the need of insurance companies to justify the higher life insurance premiums charged to African Americans.

[citation needed] An 1897 critique of this work by Kelly Miller in occasional papers of the American Negro Academy of Washington, D.C., pointed out sampling problems with the 1890 census, which was the statistical basis of the work, and that there were insufficient adjustments for environmental factors.