, 1880-07-05
How England Takes her Census

In great Britain census has been
taken every te2nyears since 1901, and
the system is one of the most per-
feet in existence. Until near the close
of the last century, there was TO real
method, ana all previous estimations of
the population of the United Kingdom
were mere guess work. It seems the
more strange that such should have
been the fact, considering that, in the
American colonies, enumerations of
the population had often been made by
order of the home government. In
1890, a beginning was made in Scot
land by Sir John Sinclair, who, through
his personal efforts in enlisting the CO.
operation of all the clergymen of the
established church, collected returns
necessarily incomplete. After seven
years he completed his compilations,
and published the results in twenty
one volumes, probably the greatest
statistical work ever undertaken and
carried through by one private enter
prise. Under the system adopted in
1851, the census in Great Britain is now
taken in one day, the 3lst OF March. In
1S51,i30, ,6l0 enumerators were appointed
in England and Wales by the 2. 100 dis
trict registrars in those countries, each
enumerator having distinctly refined
district assigned to him. In Scotland
the thirtytwO sheriffs appointed the
temporary registras- generally parish
schoolmasters-and s, l30 enumerators.
For the smaller islands, the government
to1 ~ md Iro
land the census was taken by the con-
stabutary. Some days before the CEN
sus day, printed schedules were
delivered at every house or tenement;
in Wales these were printed in Welsh
for the benefit of the lower classes.
These schedules contained questions
about the name, relation to head of
family, condition, age, sex, occupation
and birthplace of every person in
Great Britain, and also as to the num-
Der OF deaf, dumb, and blind. Meas
ures were taken to secure accurately the
names of night labOrers, persons out of
the country, travellers, seamen, soldiers,
etc. These schedules were all filed up
in the night of March 30th and 31st, and
were taken up at an early hour On March
3lst, the collector filling up the parts
that had been left blank through their
negligence or inability. All unoccupied
houses and buildings in course of cen
strlction were also noted. The float
ing population-persens who spent the
nights i'll boats and barges, in barns,
sheds, ETC., were required to be esti-
mated as nearly as possible. The emu
merators were allowed one week to
make their returns in, all transcribed,
and the summaries and estimates COM
pleted according to detailed instruc-
tions. The district registrars had to
complete their revision of the returns
of their subordinates in a fortnight,
paying particular attention to nine
specially defined points. These re-
vised returns were again revised by the
Superintendent Registrars" and then
transmitted to the census office. The
census was the most successful, in
quickness and accuracy, accomplished
IL any country up to that time, and the
same system has been pursued, with
little variation. ever since. The diges-
ton of tie census reports by the CEN
tral authorities is conducted most
thoroughly and scientifically, and the
compilations are of the greatest value
to statisticians and economists. The
British system has served as model
for many other countries, where the
census is now taken in one day by
means of printed schedules.
Herald.