History

The earliest known censuses were conducted for purposes of levying taxes or for military conscription. The Romans were the first to count their empire's inhabitants at regular intervals. With the dominance of feudalism in the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century), information on taxation and personnel for military conscription became unnecessary. Not until the 17th century did a nation again attempt an accurate count of its population. The first true census in modern times began in 1665 in the colony of New France (France's North American empire). During the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s, the practice of census-taking spread throughout the world.