The census in Europe

Abstract

This paper discusses two developments in population censuses in the European region over the last few years. The first development is the effect of the break-up of much of eastern Europe into separate countries which each need to take a separate census. The second is the tendency toward a greater use of data from existing registers, intended to provide supplementary data or to avoid traditional population censuses altogether.

Finally there is a brief overview, and a summary table, presenting some information on population censuses across Europe and North America. The data refer to the region of the Economic Commission for Europe, which is the whole of Europe including the former Soviet Union plus North America and Israel.