Away on Census Day Enumerating the Temporarily Present or Absent

Abstract

Abstract. The author discusses how census authorities have dealt with persons who were not at home on census day. In principle, the population could be enumerated either de facto (at the place where a person was present) or de jure (at the person's usual residence). In practice, some combination of the two methods has always been used. The author summarizes the census instructions for the late nineteenth century in the United States, France, and Great Britain, countries that used different enumeration techniques to handle the problems posed by the absence of persons on census day. The author then uses the 1900 census for Norway to describe the temporary residents more fully. This description is possible because the 1900 Norwegian census fully combined both the de facto and the de jure enumeration methods by separately counting individuals temporarily present and those temporarily living away from their more permanent address. The analysis of this census is facilitated because it is the only fully digitized national census implementing the combined enumeration methods. Finally, the author discusses the kinds of bias that may be introduced when analyses are made of censuses that employ different enumeration principles over time and in different countries.