Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/486

CENSUS. 416 CENSUS. This is likewise true of such records as that of liic Domesday Book frequently pointed out as illustrations of statistical practice durinj; the ^Middle Ages. Indeed, ii direct enumeration of the whole people having no other ohject in view than to ascertain tlieir number, first took place with the census of the United States in 1790, and the principal development of the census occurred in the Nineteenth Century. Before that time there had been, in several European States, efl'orts directed to ascertaining the number of tne people or of i)articular classes. Perhaps the most comprehensive of these efforts took place in Sweden. In ItiSO parish registers were intro- duced, in which not only births and deaths, but also arrivals and departures were to be noted. The most usual form of the census is the census of population, recurring at regular in- tervals of fie or ten years, as the case may be. The inauguration of regular census-taking by the United States in 1790 has already been noted. England, Holland, and Xonvay followed in 1801. In France a census, took place in 1801, but after that irregularly until 18.11, when the regular series begins. In Prussia a census was taken in 181 ti, but without any instructions to the local authorities, who were free to use their own discretion in the matter. It was hardly until the middle of the Xineteenth Century, as we shall see in reviewing the history of census- taking in the United States, that methods ac- quired stability. By means of these registers the number of the population was ascertained, and beginning with 1749 comprehensive statements for the entire land were published. Such population registers from which, in lieu of an enumeration, the num- ber of the population can be ascertained, exist to-day in many places. It was mainly from such registers that the early notices of the popu- lation of Prussia and Austria were gatliered. To tluin should be added the re|)orts made from time to time by the administrative odices of the various districts of the number of persons, espe- cially of those capable of bearing arms, under their jurisdiction. In all this we see the be- ginnings of the modern census. Enumeration of Population. — ^The census has been a matter of slow growth. In its present- dav form it involves a record of the salient facts pertaining to every person in the community, these facts being sunnnarizcd for territorial and other groups. But it was a long time in coming to this point, and early records are oftentimes very summary. Development of Population Census. — The pro- gress of census-taking can be seen in an exami- nation of the development of the census of the United States. That of 1790 was a model vinder- taking, whose results were fully stated in an octavo pamphlet of fifty-six pages, while the report upon population in the census of 1890 mis two quarto volumes, of 2181 pages. The cen- sus of 1790 recorded only the heads of families, dividing the members of the family into the fol- lowing classes: free whites, males 16 years and over, males under 16 years, females, other free l)ersons, and slaves. Until 1850 no essential change was made in the form of enumeration, though the classes were enlarged to embrace age, occupation, physical infirmity, and other data. By 1810 the schedule had grown so unwiehly that for each famil' there were as many as sev- enty sj)aees in which entries might be made. In this period there could be no tabulation of sta- tistics in the modern sense of the word. Xo combinations other than those given in the orig- inal schedule could be nade, and facts given