For millennia the census has been an instrument of public administration; it was used in a wide variety of formats counting different populations in different scientific disciplines. Over time a standard format emerged based on the scientific method; the population and housing census was formalised in the second half of the 19th century. Its function was the enumeration of every individual in the population of a specific geographical area at specific time, through direct contact of the households to obtain information about each household member. Practically parallel another administrative instrument was developed: the register, an officially sanctioned list of objects or events. Throughout time these two administrative instruments with complementary functions have contributed to the management of society. Since the second half of the 20th century the sample survey became another source of statistical information. At the same time some countries started to redesign their statistical organisation favouring registers and replacing the census, with a system of combined registers and sample surveys. Proponents of this approach indicate that this procedure has no theoretical basis and that there are methodological challenges with its implementation. This paper will review these developments and make a call for a science-wide review.
CITATION STYLE
Macdonald, A. L. (2020). Of science and statistics: The scientific basis of the census. Statistical Journal of the IAOS. IOS Press. https://doi.org/10.3233/SJI-190596
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