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THE See also:BRITISH See also:EMPIRE
See also:England and See also:Wales.—Up to the beginning of the 19th See also:century the number of the See also:population was a See also:matter of estimate and conjecture. In 1753 a See also:bill was introduced by a Drivate member of the See also:House of See also:Commons, backed by See also:official support, to provide for the See also:annual enumeration of the See also:people and of the persons in See also:receipt of parochial See also:relief. It was violently opposed as " subversive of the last remains of See also:English See also: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 See also:country in fighting-material was one of the See also:main objections offered to the proposal. By the end of the century, however, owing to a See also:great extent to the publication of the essays of See also:Malthus, the pendulum had swung far in the opposite direction, it was thought desirable to possess the means of judging from See also:time to time the relations between an increasing population and the means of subsistence. A See also:census bill, accordingly, again brought in by a private member, became See also:law without opposition at the end of 'Soo, and the first enumeration under it took See also:place in See also: The See also:report on this census contained a very valuable exposition of the difficulties involved in such operations and the numerous See also:sources of See also:error latent in an apparently See also:simple set of questions. In 1821 an See also:attempt to get a return of ages was made, but it was not repeated in 1831, when the See also:attention of the enumerators was concentrated upon greater detail in the occupation See also:record. Their efforts were successful in getting a better, but still far from See also:complete result. The creation, in 1834, of poor law unions, and the See also:establishment, in 1836, of See also:civil See also:registration districts, as a See also: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-See also:general and his See also:staff. The inquiry was extended to the sex, See also:age and occupation of every individual; those See also:born in the See also: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 See also: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 See also:system then inaugurated has been since maintained. In 1851 the relationship to the See also:head of the family, civil See also:condition, and the See also:blind and See also:deaf- See also:mute were included in the inquiry. On this occasion, the See also:act providing for the census was interpreted to authorize the collection of details regarding See also:accommodation in places of public See also:worship and the attendance thereat, as well as corresponding See also:information about educational establishments. A See also:separate report was published on the former subject which proved something of a See also: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 popula-See also:Lion returns had to be prepared were seriously multiplied by the creation of sanitary districts, to the number of 966. The See also:necessity, for administrative ar other purposes, of tabulating separately the returns for so many See also: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 See also:treasury See also:committee was appointed to consider the various suggestions made in regard to the See also:form and See also:scope of the inquiry. Its proposals were adopted as to the subdivision of the occupation See also:column into employer, employed and See also: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 See also:property or resources, but not following any occupation. No See also: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 See also: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 See also:term See also:tenement, too, was substituted for that of See also:storey, as the subdivision of a house, whilst in addition to inhabited and uninhabited houses, those occupied by See also:day, but not by See also:night, were separately recorded. The See also:nationality of those born abroad, which used to be returned only for British subjects, was called for from all not born within the See also:kingdom. Scotland.—In the acts See also:relating to the census from 18or to 1851, See also:provision for the enumeration of Scotland was made with that for England and Wales, See also:allowance being made for the See also:differences in See also: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 See also:Local See also:Government Act for Scotland, in 1889. In 1881, the See also:definition of a house in Scotland was made identical with that in England, since previously what was called a house in the See also:northern portion of Great Britain was known as a tenement in the See also:south, and See also: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 See also: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 See also:expanded at the next census, and in 1901 was brought into See also:harmony with the similar inquiry as to Welsh and See also:Manx. See also:Ireland.—An estimate of the population of Ireland was made as See also:early as 1672, by See also:Sir W. See also:Petty, and another in 1712, in connexion with the See also:hearth-See also:money, but the first attempt to take a See also:regular census was made in 1811, through the See also: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 See also:numbers they returned. The census, therefore, was supplemented by a re-visional inquiry three years afterwards, in See also:order to get a See also:good basis for the newly introduced system of public instruction. The completion of the See also:ordnance survey and the establishment of an educated constabulary force brought the operations of 1841 up to the level of those of the See also: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 See also:Dublin, of the See also:metropolitan See also:police, instead of being See also:left to the householder. The tabulation of the returns, again, is carried out at the central office from the See also:original schedule, and not, as in England, from the See also: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 See also:fuller. A column is provided for the degree of See also:education, and another for religious See also: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 See also:work, whether at See also:home or in a See also:hospital. There is also a column for the entry of persons speaking the Irish See also: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 See also:United Kingdom, the relative number of persons speaking the See also:ancient languages either exclusively or in addition to English. British Colonies and Dependencies.—A simultaneous and See also:uniform census of the British empire is an ideal which appeals to many, but its See also:practical advantages are by no means commensurate with the difficulties to be surmounted. Scattered as are the colonies. and dependencies over the See also:world, the date found most suitable for the inquiry in the See also:mother country and the temperate regions of the See also:north is the opposite in the tropics and inconvenient at the See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 barestatement of See also:area and population, appended without See also: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-See also:room, sex, age, civil condition, birthplace, occupation, and, where available, instruction, See also:religion and infirmities, were reviewed as fully, as the want of uniformity in the material permitted (Command See also:paper, 2860, 1906). The See also:measures taken by the See also:principal states, colonies and dependencies for the periodical enumeration of their population are set forth below. See also:Canada.—The first enumeration of what was afterwards called See also:Lower Canada, took place, as above stated, in 1665, and dealt with the legal, or domiciled, population, not with that actually See also:present at the time of the census, a practice still maintained, in contrast to that prevailing in the See also: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 See also:item was abandoned in favour of a fuller return of agricultural resources, a feature which has remained a prominent See also: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 See also:case of the more recently colonized territories of See also:Manitoba and the North-See also:West, where an intermediate census was found necessary in 1885-1886. The census of Canada is organized on the See also: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 See also:consideration of the large immigrant population again, the birthplace of each See also:parent is recorded, with details as to nationality, See also:naturalization and date of See also:immigration. Occupation is dealt with minutely, in See also:conjunction with temporary See also:unemployment, See also:average wage or See also:salary earned, and other particulars. No less than eleven schedules are employed, most of them relating to details of See also:industries and See also:production. The See also: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 See also: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 See also:month being allowed to the enumerator for the collection of his returns and their revision and trans-See also:mission to the central office. A See also: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 See also:adjustment in the general aggregates, a matter to which considerable attention is paid. The very large See also:mass of detail collected at these inquiries entails an unusually See also:long time spent in compilation; the See also:statistics of population, accordingly, are available considerably in advance of those relating to production and industries. See also:Australasia.—As the See also:sphere of the census operations in Canada has been gradually spreading from the small beginnings on the See also:east See also:coast to the immense territories of the north-west, so, in the See also:island See also: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 See also:settlement, the only population to be dealt with in. the earlier years of British See also:administration was that under See also:restraint, with its guardians and a few scattered immigrants in the immediate neighbourhood of See also:Sydney See also: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 See also: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 See also:free (immigrants or liberated convicts), on See also: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 See also:Zealand and See also: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, See also:Victoria, which had become a separate See also:colony, took its own census. South See also:Australia, too, was enumerated in 1846, ten years after its See also:foundation as a colony. From 1861 the census has been taken decennially by all the states except See also:Queensland, where, as in New Zealand, it has been quinquennial since 1875 and 1881 respectively. Up to and including the census of 1901 each See also:state conducted separately its own inquiries. The See also: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 See also:conference held before the census of 1891, at which a See also:standard schedule was adopted and a See also: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, See also:birth-place, 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 See also:bread-winner is distinguished from his depend-ants and is returned as employer, employed, or working on his own See also: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 See also:young community under See also:modern conditions of progress. South See also:Africa.—Almost from the date of their taking See also:possession of the Cape of Good See also:Hope and its vicinity, the See also:Netherlands East See also:Indian See also: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 See also:Boer See also: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 0f 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 See also:influence of the clergywas enlisted. In some tracts it was found advisable to substitute a less elaborate schedule for that generally prescribed. In See also:Natal, indeed, where the first independent census was taken in 1891, the Kaffir population was not on that occasion enumerated at all. In 1804, however, they were counted on a very simple schedule, by sex and by large age-See also:groups up to 40 years old, with a return of birthplace, in a form affording a See also:fair indication of See also:race. Natives of See also:India, an See also:element of considerable extent and importance in this colony, are enumerated apart from the See also: 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 See also:reason, amongst others, no census had been taken up to rgo6 of Northern Rhodesia, the British possessions and protectorates of eastern Africa, or, again, of See also:Nigeria and the protectorates attached to the West See also:African colonies of See also:Gambia, Sierra Leone and See also: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 See also:group, but the schedule is, as a rule, of a simple See also:character, and the results of the inquiry are usually set forth with comparatively little comment or analysis. In some of the groups distinctions of See also:colour are returned in general terms; in others, not at all. On the other See also:hand, considerable detail is included regarding the indentured labourers recruited from India, and those of this class who are permanently settled on the See also:land in See also:Guiana and See also:Trinidad. No census was taken in the former, or in See also:Jamaica and See also:Barbados, in 1901. See also:Ceylon.—Here the census is taken decennially, on the same date as in India, in consideration of the See also:constant stream of See also:migration between the two countries. The schedule is much the same'as in India with the substitution of race for See also: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 See also: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 thelike procedure wasadoptedin 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, See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 19or, not far from a million men were required for enumeration alone. To this See also: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 See also:supply of agency for these duties is, fortunately, not deficient. Irrespective of the large number of clerks, village See also:scribes and state and municipal employes which can be drawn upon with but slight interruption of official routine, there is a fair supply of casual See also: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 See also:desire for remuneration beyond out-of-See also:pocket expenses, and the addition, perhaps, of a See also:personal See also:letter of thanks from the chief official of the district. By means of a well-organized See also: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-See also:tongue, religion and See also: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 See also:superintendent, who prepares his own report upon the operations and results. This work has usually an See also:interest not found in corresponding reports elsewhere, in the prominent place necessarily occupied in it by the ethnographical variety of the population. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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