Editing Census (section)

==History==

=== Iran ===
One of the earliest systematic censuses in world history was conducted during the early [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid period]], up until the reign of [[Darius the Great|Darius The Great]] in [[History of Iran|Ancient Iran]]. This census, aimed at [[Financial plan|financial planning]], [[military organization]], and [[Revenue service|tax collection]], spanned regions across three continents: [[Asia]], [[Africa]], and [[Europe]]. It included data on population numbers, the wealth of cities and provinces ([[Satrap|Satrapies]]), precise assessments of agricultural lands, the resources of each region, and other factors critical to determining state finances and planning for governance and military operations.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hackl |first1=Johannes |last2=Ruffing |first2=Kai |date=2021-06-25 |chapter=Taxes and Tributes |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119071860.ch67 |journal=A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire |pages=965–979 |doi=10.1002/9781119071860.ch67|isbn=978-1-119-17428-8 }}</ref>

In modern [[Iran]], the first nationwide population and housing census was conducted in 1956 (1335 in the [[Iranian calendars|Iranian calendar]]), with the most recent one completed in 2016 (1395). According to Article 4 of the Iranian Statistical Center Law, this nationwide census is to be carried out every five years by order of the president. <ref>{{cite web | title=Census | website=Iran Data Portal | url=https://irandataportal.syr.edu/census}}</ref>

===Egypt===
{{main|Census in Egypt}}

The earliest Egyptian census was the [[cattle count]], which counted not people but livestock (especially but not exclusively cows) for taxation purposes. During the early [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]] it was taken every two years; the frequency increased over time. Human censuses in Egypt first appeared in the late [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] and developed in the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]].<ref>D. Valbelle. "Les recensements dans l'Egypte pharaonique des troisième et deuxième millénaires" CRIPEL 9 (1987)  37 - 49.</ref> [[Herodotus]] wrote that [[Ahmose I]], first monarch of the New Kingdom, required every Egyptian to declare annually to the [[nomarch]], "whence he gained his living".<ref>Herodotus, Histories II, 177, 2</ref> Under the [[Ptolemies]] and the [[Roman Egypt|Romans]] several censuses were conducted in Egypt by government officials.<ref>Paul Cartledge, Peter Garnsey, Erich S. Gruen Hellenistic Constructs: Essays in Culture, History, and Historiography  242 ss.</ref>

===Ancient Greece===
There are several accounts of ancient Greek city states carrying out censuses.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Missiakoulis |first=Spyros |year=2010 |title=Cecrops, King of Athens: the First (?) Recorded Population Census in History |journal=International Statistical Review |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=413–18 |doi=10.1111/j.1751-5823.2010.00124.x |s2cid=120868478}}</ref>

===Israel===
Censuses are mentioned several times in the [[Bible|Biblical]] narrative. God commands a [[Tax per head|per capita tax]] to be paid with the census<ref>{{bibleref|Exodus|30:11–16}}</ref> for the upkeep of the [[Tabernacle]]. The [[Book of Numbers]] is named after the counting of the Israelite population<ref>{{bibleref|Numbers|1–4}}</ref> according to the house of the Fathers after the exodus from Egypt. A second census was taken while the Israelites were camped in the "[[plains of Moab]]".<ref>{{bibleref|Numbers|26}}</ref> King [[David]] performed a census that produced disastrous results.<ref>{{Bibleverse|2|Samuel|24}} and {{Bibleverse|1|Chronicles|21}}</ref> His son, King [[Solomon]], had all of the foreigners in Israel counted.<ref>{{Bibleverse|2|Chronicles|2:17}}</ref>

===China===
One of the world's earliest preserved censuses<ref name="Hymes">{{cite book |author=[[Robert Hymes]] |url=https://archive.org/details/columbiachronolo00john |title=Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-231-11004-4 |editor=John Stewart Bowman |page=[https://archive.org/details/columbiachronolo00john/page/12 12] |url-access=registration}}</ref> was held in China in AD{{nbsp}}2 during the [[Han dynasty]], and is still considered by scholars to be quite accurate.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jeffrey Hays |title=China – Facts and Details: Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220) |url=http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=39&catid=2&subcatid=2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123032526/http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=39&catid=2&subcatid=2 |archive-date=2010-11-23}}</ref><ref name="Twitchett">Twitchett, D., Loewe, M., and Fairbank, J.K. ''Cambridge History of China: The Ch'in and Han Empires 221 B.C.–A.D. 220''. Cambridge University Press (1986), p. 240.</ref>{{sfnp|Nishijima|1986|pp=595–96}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yoon |first1=H. |year=1985 |title=An early Chinese idea of a dynamic environmental cycle |journal=[[GeoJournal]] |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=211–12 |bibcode=1985GeoJo..10..211Y |doi=10.1007/bf00150742 |s2cid=189888642}}</ref> The population was registered as having 57,671,400 individuals in 12,366,470 households but on this occasion only taxable families had been taken into account, indicating the income and the number of soldiers who could be mobilized.<ref>{{cite web |title=Han Dynasty Government |url=https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub2/entry-5426.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714010834/https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub2/entry-5426.html |archive-date=14 July 2021 |access-date=14 July 2021 |website=Facts and Details}}{{self-published source|date=July 2021}}</ref>{{sfnp|Nishijima|1986|pp=595–96}} Another census was held in AD{{nbsp}}144.

===India===
The oldest recorded [[Census of India|census in India]] is thought to have occurred around 330{{nbsp}}BC during the reign of Emperor [[Chandragupta Maurya]] under the leadership of [[Chanakya]] and [[Ashoka]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Census Commissioner of India – Historical Background |url=http://censusindia.gov.in/Data_Products/Library/Indian_perceptive_link/History_link/censushistory.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819100814/http://censusindia.gov.in/Data_Products/Library/Indian_perceptive_link/History_link/censushistory.htm |archive-date=2011-08-19 |access-date=2011-08-12 |publisher=Govt. of India |quote=The records of census conducted appears from 300 BC.}}</ref>

===Rome===
[[File:Meister der Kahriye-Cami-Kirche in Istanbul 005.jpg|thumb|An early 13th-century mosaic in the [[Chora Church]] depicting the [[Virgin Mary]] and [[Saint Joseph]] registering for the [[Census of Quirinius]]]]
{{see also|Roman censor|Indiction}}

The English term is taken directly from the [[Latin]] ''census'', from ''{{linktext|censere}}'' ("to estimate"). The census played a crucial role in the administration of the Roman government, as it was used to determine the class a citizen belonged to for both military and tax purposes. Beginning in the middle republic, it was usually carried out every five years.<ref>[[Walter Scheidel|Scheidel, Walter]] (2009) ''Rome and China: comparative perspectives on ancient world empires''. Oxford University Press, p. 28.</ref> It provided a register of citizens and their property from which their duties and privileges could be listed. It is said to have been instituted by the Roman king [[Servius Tullius]] in the {{nowrap|6th century BC,<ref>[[Livy]] ''[[Ab urbe condita (book)|Ab urbe condita]]'' 1.42</ref>}} at which time the number of arms-bearing citizens was supposedly counted at around 80,000.<ref>[[Livy]] ''[[Ab urbe condita (book)|Ab urbe condita]]'' 1.42, citing [[Fabius Pictor]]</ref> When the Romans conquered Judea in AD{{nbsp}}6, the legate [[Publius Sulpicius Quirinius]] organized a [[Census of Quirinius|census]] for tax purposes, which was partially responsible for the development of the [[Zealot]] movement and several failed rebellions against Rome ultimately ending in the [[Jewish Diaspora]]. The [[Gospel of Luke]] makes reference to Quirinius' census in relation to the [[birth of Jesus]];<ref>{{bibleref|Luke|2:1–2}}</ref> based on variant readings of this passage, a minority of biblical scholars, including [[N. T. Wright]], speculate that this passage refers to a separate registration conducted during the reign of [[Herod the Great]], several years before Quirinius' census.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Nicholas |author-link=N. T. Wright |title=Who Was Jesus? |date=9 March 1993 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. |isbn=978-0802806949 |pages=88–89}}</ref> The 15-year [[indiction]] cycle established by [[Diocletian]] in AD{{nbsp}}297 was based on quindecennial censuses and formed the basis for dating in late antiquity and under the [[Byzantine calendar|Byzantine Empire]].

===Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates===
In the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Caliphate]] began conducting regular censuses soon after its formation, beginning with the one ordered by the second [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun]] [[caliph]], [[Umar]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=al-Qādī |first=Wadād |date=July 2008 |title=Population Census and Land Surveys under the Umayyads (41–132/661–750) |journal=Der Islam |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=341–416 |doi=10.1515/ISLAM.2006.015 |s2cid=162245577}}</ref>

===Medieval Europe===
The [[Domesday Book]] was undertaken in AD{{nbsp}}1086 by [[William I of England]] so that he could properly tax the land he had recently conquered. In 1183, a census was taken of the [[crusade]]r [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]], to ascertain the number of men and amount of money that could possibly be raised against an invasion by [[Saladin]], sultan of [[Egypt]] and [[Syria]].

The first national census of France ({{Lang|fr|L'État des paroisses et des feux}}) was undertaken in 1328, mostly for fiscal purposes. It estimated the French population at 16 to 17 million.

===Inca Empire===
In the 15th century, the [[Inca Empire]] had a unique way to record census information. The Incas did not have any written language but recorded information collected during censuses and other numeric information as well as non-numeric data on [[quipus]], strings from [[llama]] or [[alpaca]] hair or cotton cords with numeric and other values encoded by knots in a [[base-10]] positional system.<ref>D'altroy, Terence N. (2001). 154</ref>

===Spanish Empire===
On May 25, 1577, [[Philip II of Spain|King Philip II of Spain]] ordered by royal cédula the preparation of a general description of Spain's holdings in the Indies. Instructions and a questionnaire, issued in 1577 by the Office of the Cronista Mayor, were distributed to local officials in the Viceroyalties of [[New Spain]] and Peru to direct the gathering of information. The questionnaire, composed of fifty items, was designed to elicit basic information about the nature of the land and the life of its peoples. The replies, known as "{{lang|es|relaciones geográficas}}", were written between 1579 and 1585 and were returned to the Cronista Mayor in Spain by the Council of the Indies.