Facts about Census
The first known census was taken by the Babylonians in 3800 B.C.E., nearly 6000 years ago.
Some believe the information taken by the census to be overly intrusive as it measures aspects of peoples' lives that are not often revealed to the public such as wealth, health, or living conditions.
A rule of thumb for census costs in developing countries have for a long time been one USD / enumerated person.
The data from censuses is not released for 72 years after taking it to protect the privacy of interviewees.
Whatever measures have been taken to reduce the privacy risk in census data, new technology in the form of better electronic analysis of data pose increasing challenges to the protection of sensitive individual information.
Censuses are less common in developing countries due to their prohibitive expense.
Illegal immigrants also try to avoid censuses as the information could potentially lead to their deportation or other such legal action.
Some censuses do this by intentionally introducing small statistical errors to prevent the identification of individuals in marginal populations; others swap variables for similar respondents.
The regularity of the census can vary from every year to every ten years to being completely irregular.
The term is mostly used in connection with national 'population and housing censuses' (to be taken every ten years according to United Nations recommendations); agriculture censuses (all agriculture units) and business censuses (all enterprises).
A very interesting way to record census information was made in the Inca Empire in the Andean region from the fifteenth century until the Spaniards conquered their land.
When a census asks detailed questions regarding sensitive matters, which have historically been used as the basis for discrimination, or the residents have questionable legal status, many will avoid answering.
The world's oldest extant census data comes from China during the Han Dynasty.
A census is the process of obtaining information about every member of a population (not necessarily a human population).
Some states conducted limited censuses for various purposes which predate the 1790 federal census schedules.
The Roman census was the most developed of any recorded in the ancient world and it played a crucial role in the administration of the Roman Empire.
The census can be contrasted with sampling in which information is only obtained from a subset of a population.
Census data is also commonly used for research, business marketing, and planning purposes.
The word 'census' origins in fact from ancient Rome, coming from the Latin word 'censere', meaning ‘estimate’.
A later census called by King David of Israel, referred to as the "numbering of the people," incited divine retribution (for being militarily motivated or perhaps displaying lack of faith in God).
Partial censuses ‘Micro censuses’ or ‘Sample censuses' are practiced in France and Germany.
New methods of gathering census information have been developed, including the use of the internet, toll free telephone numbers, and pre-paid envelopes.
Despite these new methods, some areas still take the census in the very traditional method of going door to door within a community and surveying the members of each family.
The Book of Numbers describes a divinely-mandated census that occurred when Moses led the Israelites from Egypt.
Most censuses follow common demographic information such as the age, income, area of residence, level of education, marital status, and occupation among others.
The second oldest preserved census is also from the Han, dating back to 140 C.E., when only a bit more than 48 million people were recorded.
The census is a method used for accumulating statistical data, and plays a part in democracy (voting).
Censuses are less common in developing countries due to their prohibitive expense.
