Why Did The Victorians Start Taking Census Data Every 10 Years In The 19th Century?

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Why Did The Victorians Start Taking Census Data Every 10 Years In The 19th Century?

2 Answers

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Answer 1

1790 census, the first one, name of head of household, number of free white males and females, number of other free persons, number of slaves.

1800, 1810, & 1820 census: Name of head of household, number of free white males and females, number of other free persons except Indians, number of slaves.

1830 & 1840 census: Name of head of household, number of free white males and females, number of other free persons, names of slave owners and number of slaves, number of foreigners. You see how it goes.

1850 & 1860 census had slave schedules. Slaves were taxable assets. 1850 listed black, colored, mulatto, and white race. The options 1870 were black, chinese, mulatto, native american, and white. 1880 options asian, black, chinese, indian, mexican, mulatto, and white.

Little remains of 1890 census.

Native Americans did not pay taxes so were not enumerated until they had to make a choice by 1900 I think it was, on which census many ethnicities were listed.

Earlier in our history there were drives in some southern states requiring native americans, who had long lived among and intermarried with whites among them, to choose to be white and be taxed, or remove to Indian Territory.

Answer 2

Part of the answer rests with the preoccupation of the Victorian era with statistics. However, although the first census that is of use for family history is the 1841 census, the first national census in England and Wales actually took place 40 years earlier. John Rickman, a clerk of the House of Commons had overseen censuses in 1801, 1811, 1821 and 1831. In 1836, he had begun to take a major role in the early preparations for taking the 1841 census. In contrast to the earlier censuses, which recorded a basic headcount rather than individual details, the 1841 census was much more ambitious. It planned to record the name address and details of every individual person in the country.

A major preoccupation at the time seems to have been to identify the factors relating to the spread of disease. In the 1830s, people did not know that infectious disease was caused by microbial agents (the germ theory of disease was not accepted until the 1870s). However, many statisticians and prominent doctors had concluded that diseases such as cholera were more prevalent in areas where the population was crowded together in towns and cities, in areas with inadequate sanitation. The census data, combined with parish data on death rates, was intended for use as a tool to improve the standard of living and to reduce the spread of infectious disease.