ABSTRACT
From 1853, formal meetings tried to coordinate and spread census taking. The International Statistical Congresses met regularly until the 1870s. From 1885, the International Statistical Institute – ISI – organized triennial meetings. The League of Nations took on some coordination tasks; however, only the United Nations prioritized census coordination. Acceptance of international standards met counterarguments from national or popular interests in the home court, and the irregular attendance of the US and the German States impeded international coordination.
Most countries followed the recommended census years ending in zero; Britain and Russia were major exceptions. There was little agreement on classifying occupations before the mid-20th century, especially how to classify female, domestic workers, those without incomes and occupational hierarchies. Basing ethnicity or “nationality” on language rather than ancestry was more successful. Most censuses operationalize religion as membership in religious communities. The US never asked about religion, whereas Britain in 2001 introduced the question along with several European countries after Eurostat recommended it in 2011. The British and Russian Empires took de facto censuses, while the US, Canada and Sweden enumerated people de jure. The statistical congresses wavered and later favoured the simpler de facto censuses. Roughly, the de jure principle might be linked to democracy and the de facto method to colonialism. The de jure principle gains ground because of today’s large temporary population segments and registry-based censuses.
