ABSTRACT
All through history, there has always been a need for statistical overviews about the state of countries. Opinion polls can be traced back to ancient Greece. Around 500 BC, many city–states had a form of government based on democratic principles. For a long period in history, data collection was based on complete enumeration of the target population. Every person in the target population had to provide information. This chapter presents a global overview of historical developments of data collection from the use of censuses, via the rise of survey sampling, to online polls. The industrial revolution in the nineteenth century was an important era in the history of statistics. It brought about substantial changes in society, science, and technology. Urbanization, industrialization, democratization, and emerging social movements created new demands for statistical information. Several central statistical bureaus, statistical societies, statistical conferences, and statistical journals emerged as a result of these developments.
