Census

A census is the procedure of systematically enumerating, and acquiring and

recording information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly
in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses
include agricultural, traditional culture, business, supplies, and traffic censuses.
The United Nations defines the essential features of population and housing censuses as
"individual enumeration, universality within a defined territory, simultaneity and defined
periodicity", and recommends that population censuses be taken at least every ten years.
United Nations recommendations also cover census topics to be collected, official
definitions, classifications and other useful information to co-ordinate international
practices.[1][2]
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in turn, defines
the census of agriculture as “a statistical operation for collecting, processing and
disseminating data on the structure of agriculture, covering the whole or a significant part
of a country.” “In a census of agriculture, data are collected at the holding level.[3]
The word is of Latin origin: during the Roman Republic, the census was a list that kept
track of all adult males fit for military service. The modern census is essential
to international comparisons of any kind of statistics, and censuses collect data on many
attributes of a population, not just how many people there are. Censuses typically began
as the only method of collecting national demographic data, and are now part of a larger
system of different surveys. Although population estimates remain an important function
of a census, including exactly the geographic distribution of the population or the
agricultural population, statistics can be produced about combinations of attributes e.g.
education by age and sex in different regions. Current administrative data systems allow
for other approaches to enumeration with the same level of detail but raise concerns
about privacy and the possibility of biasing estimates.[4]
A census can be contrasted with sampling in which information is obtained only from a
subset of a population; typically main population estimates are updated by
such intercensal estimates. Modern census data are commonly used for research,
business marketing, and planning, and as a baseline for designing sample surveys by
providing a sampling frame such as an address register. Census counts are necessary to
adjust samples to be representative of a population by weighting them as is common
in opinion polling. Similarly, stratification requires knowledge of the relative sizes of
different population strata which can be derived from census enumerations. In some
countries, the census provides the official counts used to apportion the number of elected
representatives to regions (sometimes controversially – e.g., Utah v. Evans). In many
cases, a carefully chosen random sample can provide more accurate information than
attempts to get a population census.[5]
A census is often construed as the opposite of a sample as its intent is to count everyone
in a population rather than a fraction. However, population censuses do rely on
a sampling frame to count the population. This is the only way to be sure that everyone
has been included as otherwise those not responding would not be followed up on and
individuals could be missed. The fundamental premise of a census is that the population
is not known and a new estimate is to be made by the analysis of primary data. The use
of a sampling frame is counterintuitive as it suggests that the population size is already
known. However, a census is also used to collect attribute data on the individuals in the
nation, not only to assess population size. This process of sampling marks the difference
between a historical census, which was a house to house process or the product of an
imperial decree, and the modern statistical project. The sampling frame used by census
is almost always an address register. Thus it is not known if there is anyone resident or
how many people there are in each household. Depending on the mode of enumeration,
a form is sent to the householder, an enumerator calls, or administrative records for the
dwelling are accessed. As a preliminary to the dispatch of forms, census workers will
check any address problems on the ground. While it may seem straightforward to use the
postal service file for this purpose, this can be out of date and some dwellings may
contain a number of independent households. A particular problem is what are termed
'communal establishments' which category includes student residences, religious orders,
homes for the elderly, people in prisons etc. As these are not easily enumerated by a
single householder, they are often treated differently and visited by special teams of
census workers to ensure they are classified appropriately.