Population Surveys & Censuses

Go to ==> The Hundred Rolls, 1255, 1274-75, 1279-80
Go to ==> Posse Comitatus, 1798

Worldwide Censuses

The famous Domesday book, a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales, was commissioned in 1085 and completed in 1086 by order of William I, or "William the Conqueror". Six great Domesday circuits were conducted, with Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex being included in Circuit Three.

The Hundred Rolls are a census of England and parts of what is now Wales taken in the late thirteenth century. Often considered an attempt to produce a second Domesday Book, they are named after the hundreds by which most returns were recorded. The Rolls include a survey of royal privileges taken in 1255, and the better known surveys of liberties and land ownership, taken in 1274–5 and 1279–80, respectively. The two main enquiries were commissioned by Edward I of England to record the adult population for judicial and taxation purposes.

No actual headcount in Britain was conducted until the Posse Comitatus ("force of the County") in February 1798, the powers-that-be having concerns that they would have difficulty raising up a civil force should France invade England. They therefore directed that returns be prepared of men that could serve in the event of riot, insurrection or invasion. In addition, the number of horses, wagons and carts were surveyed. Buckinghamshire is the only county for which a complete copy of the Posse Comitatus exists.

UK censuses were initially conducted partly to ascertain the number of men able to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, and partly over population concerns stemming from the 1798 work "An Essay on the Principle of Population" by Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus. The census is a head count of everyone in the country on a given day.

Each of the British colonies conducted its own censuses until 1886.On 3 April 1881, the first simultaneous census of the British Empire covering the United Kingdom, India and the Crown Settlements (including Australia) was taken. This census produced the first set of colony population figures for the same day.

From 1851 to 1901, a Canadian census occurred every 10 years; this was confirmed by the British North America Act, also known as the Constitution Act, 1867. The original purpose of the census was to help determine parliamentary representation based on population. The first census of the Dominion of Canada was taken in 1871.

The first Australian census was held in 1911. 'The first population counts of Australia were known as musters and were made as early as 1788. Musters involved all members of the community gathering at specified locations to be counted. These were important as a means of matching food and other supplies to the number of people needing them.

The United States census is a census that is legally mandated by the U.S. Constitution, and takes place every 10 years. The first census after the American Revolution was taken in 1790, under Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson; there have been 23 federal censuses since that time.

The NZ electoral registers before 1881 only recorded property owners, and after 1893 women appear on the electroal register, with NZ being one of the earliest nations to grant women's suffrage.

A census has been taken in England and Wales, and separately for Scotland, every ten years since 1801, with the exception of 1941. The first four censuses, 1801 through 1831, were taken strictly for statistical purposes for the Overseers of the Poor and substantial households. The first census listing people by name was taken in 1841. Census records are generally released 100 years after they were taken.