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What is a Census?

A government survey that is conducted to obtain information about the population and economy of a country is termed a census. The word comes from the Latin censere, meaning 'to tax', and was originally applied to the lists of adult males and their property in ancient Rome. Registrations of the people in certain parts of the country-or of certain groups of people, such as landowners-were also made in ancient Babylon,Egypt and Greece, most probably for taxation purposes.

The first attempt to undertake a census in the modern sense-that is, a complete count of a country's population-was in China in AD 1370. The evidence for this early census is contained in documents that give instructions for undertaking the population count and contain an outline of the penal ties for anyone refusing to com ply with the census. A completed census schedule also exists, but no records of national results have survived.