_England and Wales._--Up to the beginning of the 19th century the number
of the population was a matter of estimate and conjecture. In 1753 a
bill was introduced by a private member of the House of Commons, backed
by official support, to provide for the annual enumeration of the people
and of the persons in receipt of parochial relief. It was violently
opposed as "subversive of the last remains of English liberty" and as
likely to result in "some public misfortune or an epidemical distemper."
After passing that House, however, the bill was thrown out by the House
of Lords. The fear of disclosing to the enemies of England the weakness
of the country in fighting-material was one of the main objections
offered to the proposal. By the end of the century, however, owing to a
great extent to the publication of the essays of Malthus, the pendulum
had swung far in the opposite direction, it was thought desirable to
possess the means of judging from time to time the relations between an
increasing population and the means of subsistence. A census bill,
accordingly, again brought in by a private member, became law without
opposition at the end of 1800, and the first enumeration under it took
place in March of the following year, the operations being confined to
Great Britain. The inquiry was entrusted in England to the overseers,
acting under the justices of the peace and the high constables, and in
Scotland, to village schoolmasters, under the sheriffs. A supplementary
statement of births, deaths and marriages for each parish was required
from the clergy, who transmitted it to parliament through the bishops
and primates successively. There was no central office or control. The
schedule required the number of houses, inhabited and otherwise, the
population of each family, by sex, and the occupation, under one of the
three heads, (a) agriculture, (b) trade, manufacture or industry, or (c)
other than these two. The results, which were not satisfactory, were
published without comment. Ten years later, the chief alteration in the
inquiry was the substitution of the main occupation of the family for
that of the individual. The report on this census contained a very
valuable exposition of the difficulties involved in such operations and
the numerous sources of error latent in an apparently simple set of
questions. In 1821 an attempt to get a return of ages was made, but it
was not repeated in 1831, when the attention of the enumerators was
concentrated upon greater detail in the occupation record. Their efforts
were successful in getting a better, but still far from complete result.
The creation, in 1834, of poor law unions, and the establishment, in
1836, of civil registration districts, as a rule coterminous with them,
provided a new basis for the taking of a census, and the operations in
1841 were made over accordingly to the supervision of the
registrar-general and his staff. The inquiry was extended to the sex,
age and occupation of every individual; those born in the district were
distinguished from others, foreigners being also separately returned.
The number of houses inhabited, uninhabited and under construction
respectively, was noted in the return. The parish statement of births,
deaths and marriages was sent up by the clergy for the last time. The
most important innovation, however, was the transfer of the
responsibility for filling up the schedule from the overseers to the
householders, thereby rendering possible a synchronous record.
With some modification in detail, the system then inaugurated has been
since maintained. In 1851 the relationship to the head of the family,
civil condition, and the blind and deaf-mute were included in the
inquiry. On this occasion, the act providing for the census was
interpreted to authorize the collection of details regarding
accommodation in places of public worship and the attendance thereat, as
well as corresponding information about educational establishments. A
separate report was published on the former subject which proved
something of a storm centre. The census of 1871 obtained for the first
time a return of persons of unsound mind not confined in asylums. During
the next ten years, the separate areas for which population returns had
to be prepared were seriously multiplied by the creation of sanitary
districts, to the number of 966. The necessity, for administrative or
other purposes, of tabulating separately the returns for so many
cross-divisions of the country constitutes one of the main difficulties
of the English census operations, more particularly as the boundaries of
these areas are frequently altered. In anticipation of the census of
1891, a treasury committee was appointed to consider the various
suggestions made in regard to the form and scope of the inquiry. Its
proposals were adopted as to the subdivision of the occupation column
into employer, employed and independent worker, and as to the record
upon the schedule of the number of rooms occupied by the family, where
not more than five. Separate entry was also made of the persons living
upon property or resources, but not following any occupation. No action
was taken, however, upon the more important recommendation that midway
between two censuses a simple enumeration by sex and age should be
effected. A return was also prepared in 1891, for Wales, of those who
could speak only Welsh, only English, and both languages, but, owing to
the inclusion of infants, the results were of little value. In 1901 the
same information was called for, excluding all under three years of age.
The term tenement, too, was substituted for that of storey, as the
subdivision of a house, whilst in addition to inhabited and uninhabited
houses, those occupied by day, but not by night, were separately
recorded. The nationality of those born abroad, which used to be
returned only for British subjects, was called for from all not born
within the kingdom.
_Scotland._--In the acts relating to the census from 1801 to 1851,
provision for the enumeration of Scotland was made with that for England
and Wales, allowance being made for the differences in procedure, which
mainly concerned the agency to be employed. In 1855, however, civil
registration of births and deaths was established in Scotland, and the
conduct of the census of 1861 was, by a separate act, entrusted to the
registrar-general of that country. The same course was followed at the
three succeeding enumerations, but in 1901 the former practice was
resumed. The complexity of administrative areas, though far less than in
England, was simplified, and the census compilation proportionately
facilitated, by the passing of the Local Government Act for Scotland, in
1889. In 1881, the definition of a house in Scotland was made identical
with that in England, since previously what was called a house in the
northern portion of Great Britain was known as a tenement in the south,
and vice versa. Since 1861 a return has been called for in Scotland of
the number of rooms with one or more windows, and that of children of
school-age under instruction is also included in the inquiry. The number
of persons speaking Gaelic was recorded for the first time in 1881. The
question was somewhat expanded at the next census, and in 1901 was
brought into harmony with the similar inquiry as to Welsh and Manx.
_Ireland_.--An estimate of the population of Ireland was made as early
as 1672, by Sir W. Petty, and another in 1712, in connexion with the
hearth-money, but the first attempt to take a regular census was made in
1811, through the Grand Juries. It was not successful, and in 1821
again, the inquiry was considered to be but little more satisfactory.
The census of 1831 was better, but the results were considered
exaggerated, owing to the system of paying enumerators according to the
numbers they returned. The census, therefore, was supplemented by a
revisional inquiry three years afterwards, in order to get a good basis
for the newly introduced system of public instruction. The completion of
the ordnance survey and the establishment of an educated constabulary
force brought the operations of 1841 up to the level of those of the
sister kingdom. The main difference in procedure between the two
inquiries is that in Ireland the schedule is filled in by the
enumerator, a member of the constabulary, or, in Dublin, of the
metropolitan police, instead of being left to the householder. The
tabulation of the returns, again, is carried out at the central office
from the original schedule, and not, as in England, from the book into
which the former has been copied by the enumerating agency. The inquiry
in Ireland is more extensive than that in Great Britain. It includes,
for instance, a considerable amount of information regarding holdings
and stock. The details of house accommodation are fuller. A column is
provided for the degree of education, and another for religious
denomination, an addition which has always been successfully resisted in
England. This last information was made voluntary in 1881 and the
following enumerations without materially affecting the extent of the
record. The inquiry as to infirmities, too, is made to extend to those
_temporarily_ incapacitated from work, whether at home or in a hospital.
There is also a column for the entry of persons speaking the Irish
language only or able to speak both that and English. In the report of
1901 for England and Wales (p. 170) a table is given showing, for the
three divisions of the United Kingdom, the relative number of persons
speaking the ancient languages either exclusively or in addition to
English.
_British Colonies and Dependencies._--A simultaneous and uniform census
of the British empire is an ideal which appeals to many, but its
practical advantages are by no means commensurate with the difficulties
to be surmounted. Scattered as are the colonies and dependencies over
the world, the date found most suitable for the inquiry in the mother
country and the temperate regions of the north is the opposite in the
tropics and inconvenient at the antipodes. Then, again, as to the scope
of the inquiry, the administrative purposes for which information is
thus collected vary greatly in the different countries, and the inquiry,
too, has to be limited to what the conditions of the locality allow, and
the population dealt with is likely to be able and willing to answer. By
prearrangement, no doubt, uniformity may be obtained in regard to most
of the main statistical facts ascertainable at a census, at all events
in the more advanced units of the empire, and proposals to this effect
were made by the registrar-general of England and Wales in his report
upon the figures for 1901. Previous to that date, the only step towards
compilation of the census results of the empire had been a bare
statement of area and population, appended without analysis; comparison
or comment, to the reports for England and Wales, from the year 1861
onwards. In 1905, however, the returns published in the colonial reports
were combined with those of the United Kingdom, and the subjects of
house-room, sex, age, civil condition, birthplace, occupation, and,
where available, instruction, religion and infirmities, were reviewed as
fully as the want of uniformity in the material permitted (Command
paper, 2860, 1906). The measures taken by the principal states, colonies
and dependencies for the periodical enumeration of their population are
set forth below.
_Canada_.--The first enumeration of what was afterwards called Lower
Canada, took place, as above stated, in 1665, and dealt with the legal,
or domiciled, population, not with that actually present at the time of
the census, a practice still maintained, in contrast to that prevailing
in the rest of the empire. The record was by families, and included the
sex, age and civil condition of each individual, with a partial return
of profession or trade. Later on, the last item was abandoned in favour
of a fuller return of agricultural resources, a feature which has
remained a prominent part of the inquiry. After the British occupation,
a census was taken in 1765 and 1784, and annually from 1824 to 1842, the
information asked for differing from time to time. Enumerations were
conducted independently by the different states until 1871, when the
first federal census was taken of the older parts of the Dominion. Since
then, the enumeration has been decennial, except in the case of the more
recently colonized territories of Manitoba and the North-West, where an
intermediate census was found necessary in 1885-1886. The census of
Canada is organized on the plan adopted in the United States rather than
in accordance with British practice, and includes much which is the
subject of annual returns in the latter country, or is not officially
collected at all. The details of deaths in the year preceding the
census, for instance, are called for, there being no registration of
such occurrences in the rural tracts. In consideration of the large
immigrant population again, the birthplace of each parent is recorded,
with details as to nationality, naturalization and date of immigration.
Occupation is dealt with minutely, in conjunction with temporary
unemployment, average wage or salary earned, and other particulars. No
less than eleven schedules are employed, most of them relating to
details of industries and production. The duty of filling up so
comprehensive a return, involving an answer to 561 questions, is not
left to the householder, but entrusted to enumerators specially engaged,
working under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture. Owing to
the sparse population and difficulties of communication in a great part
of the dominion, the inquiry, though referred to a single date, is not
completed on that day, a month being allowed to the enumerator for the
collection of his returns and their revision and transmission to the
central office. A special feature in the operations is the provision,
necessitated by the record of the _legal_ population, for the inclusion
in the local return of the persons temporarily absent on the date of the
census, and their adjustment in the general aggregates, a matter to
which considerable attention is paid. The very large mass of detail
collected at these inquiries entails an unusually long time spent in
compilation; the statistics of population, accordingly, are available
considerably in advance of those relating to production and industries.
_Australasia_.--As the sphere of the census operations in Canada has
been gradually spreading from the small beginnings on the east coast to
the immense territories of the north-west, so, in the island continent,
colonization, first concentrated in the south-east, has extended along
the coasts and thence into the interior, except in the northern region.
The first act of effective occupation of the country having been the
establishment of a penal settlement, the only population to be dealt
with in the earlier years of British administration was that under
restraint, with its guardians and a few scattered immigrants in the
immediate neighbourhood of Sydney Cove. This was enumerated from 1788
onwards by official "musters," at first weekly, and afterwards at
lengthening intervals. The record was so inaccurate that it had no
statistical value until 1820, when the muster was taken after due
preparation and with greater care, approximating to the system of a
regular census. The first operation, however, called by the latter name,
was the enumeration of 1828, when an act was passed providing for the
enumeration of the whole population, the occupied area and the
live-stock. The details of population included sex, children and adults
respectively, religion and _status_, that is whether free (immigrants or
liberated convicts), on ticket-of-leave, or under restraint. A similar
inquiry was made in 1833 and again in 1836. In 1841 a separate census
was taken of New Zealand and Tasmania respectively. The scope of the
inquiry in New South Wales was somewhat extended and made to include
occupations other than agriculture and stock-breeding. Five years later,
the increase of the population justified the further addition of
particulars regarding birthplace and education. The record of _status_,
too, was made optional, and in 1856 was omitted from the schedule. In
that year, moreover, Victoria, which had become a separate colony, took
its own census. South Australia, too, was enumerated in 1846, ten years
after its foundation as a colony. From 1861 the census has been taken
decennially by all the states except Queensland, where, as in New
Zealand, it has been quinquennial since 1875 and 1881 respectively. Up
to and including the census of 1901 each state conducted separately its
own inquiries. The scheme of enumeration is based on that of Great
Britain, modified to suit the conditions of a thin and widely scattered
population. The schedules are distributed by enumerators acting under
district supervisors; but it is found impossible to collect the whole
number in a single day, nor does the mobility of the population in the
rural tracts make such expedition necessary. In more than one state the
police are employed as enumerators, but elsewhere, a staff has to be
specially recruited for the purpose. The operations were improved and
facilitated by means of an interstatal conference held before the census
of 1891, at which a standard schedule was adopted and a series of
general tables agreed upon, to be supplemented in greater detail
according to the requirements of each state. The standard schedule, in
addition to the leading facts of sex, age, civil condition, birthplace,
occupation and house-room, includes education and sickness as well as
infirmities, and leaves the return of religious denomination optional
with the householder. Under the head of occupation, the bread-winner is
distinguished from his dependants and is returned as employer, employed,
or working on his own account, as is now the usual practice in
census-taking. Each state issues its own report, in which the returns
are worked up in the detail required for both local administrative
purposes, and for comparison with the corresponding returns for the
neighbouring territory. The reports for New South Wales and Victoria are
especially valuable in their statistical aspect from the analysis they
contain of the vital conditions of a comparatively young community under
modern conditions of progress.
_South Africa._--Almost from the date of their taking possession of the
Cape of Good Hope and its vicinity, the Netherlands East Indian Company
instituted annual returns of population, live-stock and agricultural
produce. The results from 1687 for nearly a century were recorded, but
do not appear to have been more accurate than those subsequently
obtained on the same method by the British government, by whom they were
discontinued in 1856. The information was collected by district
officials, unguided by any general instructions as to form or procedure.
The first synchronous census of the colony, as it was then constituted,
took place in 1865, on a fairly comprehensive schedule. Ten years later
the inquiry was extended to religion and civil condition, and for the
census of 1891, again, a rather more elaborate schedule was used. The
next census was deferred till 1904, in consequence of the
disorganization produced by the Boer war. The inquiry was on the same
lines as its predecessors, with a little more detail as to industries
and religious denomination. Speaking generally, the administration of
the operations is conducted upon the Australian plan, with special
attention to allaying the distrust of the native and more ignorant
classes, for which purpose the influence of the clergy was enlisted. In
some tracts it was found advisable to substitute a less elaborate
schedule for that generally prescribed. In Natal, indeed, where the
first independent census was taken in 1891, the Kaffir population was
not on that occasion enumerated at all. In 1904, however, they were
counted on a very simple schedule, by sex and by large age-groups up to
40 years old, with a return of birthplace, in a form affording a fair
indication of race. Natives of India, an element of considerable extent
and importance in this colony, are enumerated apart from the white
population, but in full detail, recognizing the remarkable difference
between the European and the Oriental in the matter of age distribution
and civil condition. The Transvaal and the Orange River colonies were
enumerated in 1904. In the latter, a census had been taken in 1890, in
considerable detail, but that of the Transvaal, in 1896, seems to have
been far from complete or accurate even in regard to the white
population. In Southern Rhodesia the white residents were enumerated in
1891, but it was not until 1904 that the whole population was included
in the census. The difficulty in all these cases is that of procuring a
sufficient quantity of efficient agency, especially where a large and
illiterate native population has to be taken into account. For this
reason, amongst others, no census had been taken up to 1906 of Northern
Rhodesia, the British possessions and protectorates of eastern Africa,
or, again, of Nigeria and the protectorates attached to the West African
colonies of Gambia, Sierra Leone and Lagos.
_The West Indies._--Each of the small administrative groups here
included takes its census independently of the rest, though since 1871
all take it about the date fixed for that of the United Kingdom. The
information required differs in each group, but the schedule is, as a
rule, of a simple character, and the results of the inquiry are usually
set forth with comparatively little comment or analysis. In some of the
groups distinctions of colour are returned in general terms; in others,
not at all. On the other hand, considerable detail is included regarding
the indentured labourers recruited from India, and those of this class
who are permanently settled on the land in Guiana and Trinidad. No
census was taken in the former, or in Jamaica and Barbados, in 1901.
_Ceylon_.--Here the census is taken decennially, on the same date as in
India, in consideration of the constant stream of migration between the
two countries. The schedule is much the same as in India with the
substitution of race for caste. Until 1901, however, it was not filled
in by the enumerator, as in India, but was distributed before and
collected after the appointed date as in Great Britain.
_India_.--The population of India is the largest aggregate yet brought
within the scope of a synchronous and uniform enumeration. It amounts to
three-fourths of that of the British Empire, and but little less than a
fifth of the estimated population of the world. Between 1853 and 1881
each province conducted its own census operations independently, with
little or no attempt at uniformity in date, schedule or tabulation. In
the latter year the operations were placed for the first time under
central administration, and the like procedure was adopted in 1891 and
1901, with such modification of detail as was suggested by the
experience of the preceding census. On each occasion new areas had to be
brought within the sphere of enumeration, whilst the necessity for the
use in the wilder tracts of a schedule simpler in its demands than the
standard, grew less as the country got more accustomed to the inquiry,
and the efficiency of the administrative agency increased. Not more than
5% of the householders in India can read and write, and the proportion
capable of fully understanding the schedule and of making the entries in
it correctly is still lower. From the literate minority, therefore,
agency has to be drawn in sufficient strength to take down every
particle of the information dictated by the heads of families. As it
would be impossible for an enumerator to get through this task in the
course of the census night for more than a comparatively small number of
houses, the operation is divided into two processes. First a preliminary
record is made a short time before the night in question, of the persons
ordinarily residing in each house. Then, on that night, the enumerator,
reinforced if necessary by aid drafted from outside, revisits his beat,
and brings the record up to date by striking out the absent and entering
the new arrivals. The average extent of each beat is arranged to include
about 300 persons. Thus, in 1901, not far from a million men were
required for enumeration alone. To this army must be added the
controlling agency, of at least a tenth of the above number, charged
with the instruction of their subordinates, the inspection and
correction of the preliminary record, and the transmission of the
schedule books to the local centre after the census has been taken. The
supply of agency for these duties is, fortunately, not deficient.
Irrespective of the large number of clerks, village scribes and state
and municipal employés which can be drawn upon with but slight
interruption of official routine, there is a fair supply of casual
literary labour up to the moderate standard required. The services, too,
of the educated public are often voluntarily placed at the disposal of
the local authorities for the census night, with no desire for
remuneration beyond out-of-pocket expenses, and the addition, perhaps,
of a personal letter of thanks from the chief official of the district.
By means of a well-organized chain of tabulating centres, the
preliminary totals, by sexes, of the 294 millions enumerated in 1901
were given to the public within a fortnight of the census, and differed
from the final results by no more than 94,000, or .03%. The schedule
adopted contains in addition to the standard subjects of sex, age, civil
condition, birthplace, occupation and infirmities, columns for
mother-tongue, religion and sect, and caste and sub-caste. It is printed
in about 20 languages. The results for each province or large state are
tabulated locally, by districts or linguistic divisions. The final
compilation is done by a provincial superintendent, who prepares his own
report upon the operations and results. This work has usually an
interest not found in corresponding reports elsewhere, in the prominent
place necessarily occupied in it by the ethnographical variety of the
population.