Population census. First Population Census

How commonplace for us is the population census today ... This will surprise no one, you will not outraged. In a sense, this process is already an integral part of our life. It's so natural - ask the search engine about the number of people in the city, where you plan on vacation. On the question of whether you live in a big city, almost everyone, without hesitation, will name an approximate but close figure. The schoolboy will easily list the cities with over one million people in his country and certainly will be able to answer how many people live with him in the same territory. But it was not always so. Earlier, the population census was an exceptional event. A new, difficult, having its own peculiarities occupation.

A bit of world history

In the ancient centuries, during the active wars and division of territory between different states, the population census was used everywhere. Every feudal lord knew his people, the number of families living under his rule. After all, the amount of paid taxes depended on it, it was necessary to know the number of capable population for conscription in the army in case of the beginning of another war.

This necessity arose in ancient times. Indians, Egyptian pharaohs, the government of ancient China and ancient Japan - all had their own mechanisms for accounting for the number of people.

Interestingly, even the Bible describes a census conducted by King David.

Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome accounted for only the number of adult men. But the governments of some medieval states (such as Germany, France, Italy) preferred to consider the population as whole families.

века. The debut full-fledged population census in the modern sense was conducted in the United States of America shortly before the end of the XVIII century.

Russian state

века. The first population census in Russia was conducted in the middle of the 13th century. It became one of the administrative innovations introduced by the Mongols. The main reason for accounting was the calculation and planning of taxation (tribute).

After the liberation from the Mongol-Tatar yoke in some territories of the Russian state, this procedure was preserved. However, only a few principalities were enumerated. It is for certain known about the keeping of records only in the Novgorod and Kiev principalities. At first, the land was the object of the census (plow, tithe, yard).

The records were kept in so-called scribal books. However, only the unstructured part of the information was taken into account. Later they were replaced by "spelling books". The enumerators mainly appointed representatives of the clergy. This was also due to the fact that among them there were much more frequent literate scribes.

During the Russian Empire

The first general population census was a unique event at that time. For its preparation it has been spent more than twenty years. This was and remained a one-of-a-kind project, when the population census in Russia was conducted everywhere and on the same day.

работу по внесению данных планировали выполнять при помощи электрических счётных машин. According to the idea of Nicholas II, the work on data entry was planned to be performed using electric counting machines.

In fact, most of the information was entered by counting officials, since the literacy of the population did not allow the implementation of technical progress of that time to be realized.

However, the next step was still made on counting electric machines. All received information was applied to a punch card, individual for each resident.

According to experts, the cost of the entire procedure exceeded 6 million Russian rubles.

Accounting for the population under the Soviets

The Soviet authorities paid considerable attention to determining not only the quantitative composition of the population, but also territorial distribution, religion and nationality.

The first census after the revolution was held in 1920, but covered only the territories on which there was no Civil War.

After 3 years, all city residents were rewritten, and after 3 years a general census took place.

In modern Russia

The census of the population in Russia was carried out only ten years after the formation of the new state. Passed from 14 to 25 October 2010. According to preliminary results, announced in March 2011, the population of Russia was 142 905 200 people. Over the time since 2002, Russia has moved by the population from 7th to 8th place in the world.

The census of the population in the Crimea by the forces of the Russian Federation was carried out in the autumn of 2014. Its objectivity has repeatedly been criticized, especially with regard to information about the religious and national identity of citizens.

Reliability of data

The reliability of the statistical information of the census always has an error, therefore it is often the subject of discussion.

Do not exclude the difficulties of an objective and subjective nature, negatively affecting the accuracy of its results.

An error can occur both during the preparation phase and during data collection and processing. Another thing to consider is that every day someone dies, and someone is born.

At the time of the state, Russian census-takers were deceived intentionally. Residents used rather simple, but effective ways. Since the tax was charged on the yard, and not on the number of people living in it, the peasants could move from several houses to one or built one temporary fence around two or more households.

For example, the census of 1897 was accompanied by a huge number of rumors. Not all residents were supportive of this idea. There were a lot of gossip among the townsfolk. The people deliberately and unintentionally intimidated by the fact that the purpose of the census is the introduction of new taxes. And this is even the most innocuous. Residents were afraid that they would be reluctant to move to undeveloped Siberian lands. Among some Old Believer communities, it was said that counting people is a sign that the coming of the Antichrist is coming.

Some data were deliberately distorted by the respondents themselves. For example, not all delivered objective information about their attitude to military service, additional types of income, religion.

The primary census forms show bias in the preparation of questionnaires and imperfect data processing. For example, Kazakhs and Kirghiz in a number of regions belong to the same people. And in other sources it is clear that the Turkmens are considered together with the Tajiks. And there are many such errors.