Population census. First Population Census

How common is the census for usof the population today ... This is not surprising, you will not outrage. 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, special occupation.

A bit of world history

In ancient times, during the times of active wars andpartition of the 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 onlynumber of adult males. But the governments of some medieval states (such as Germany, France, Italy) preferred to consider the population as whole families.

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

Russian state

The first population census in Russia was conducted in the middle XIII 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 liberation from the Mongol-Tatar yoke onsome territories of the Russian state, this procedure is preserved. However, only a few principalities were enumerated. It is for certain known about the keeping of records only in Novgorod and Kiev princedoms. Initially, the object of the census was the land plots (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 basically 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 wasunique 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.

According to Nicholas's plan 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 at that time to be realized.

However, the next step was still made on counting electric machines. All received information was applied to a 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 3 years later - a general census took place.

In modern Russia

The census of the population in Russia was carried out onlyten 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 from the 7th to the 8th place in the world in terms of population.

Population census in the Crimea by the RussianThe Federation was produced already in the fall of 2014. Its objectivity was repeatedly 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, adversely 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.

In the times of the Russian copyist statedeceived 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 1897was 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 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.

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