History of Population Censuses and the Rapid Progresses over the Last Decade

Tomiwa Fapohunda , University of the Western Cape. Statistics and Population Studies dpt
Nancy Stiegler, University of the Western Cape. Statistics and Population Studies dpt

Despite the great importance of census, the European colonist of nations such as France, Denmark and England avoided census processes in their countries due to the fear of losing their central government during the 1700s-1800s. While, the Iceland, American and Caribbean countries embraced census to facilitate a well taxed and controlled colonies. The oppositions stopped after Thomas Malthus published an article in 1798 on principles of population. In 1911, technology made census process easier using the house-to-house enumeration (traditional method), Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI), Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI), Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) and administrative registers. Most countries are still yet to fully adopt the use of other methods apart from the traditional method. In 2020, over 70 countries census process were disrupted due to the COVID19 pandemic. A document review was conducted to assess how census can be conducted during a health or national crises. Consequently, it is recommended that countries should adopt the use of other methods for the census process.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe