The Census of Quirinius was a census of the Roman province of Judaea taken in 6 CE, upon its formation, by the governor of Roman Syria, Publius Sulpicius Quirinius. The census triggered a revolt of Jewish extremists led by Judas of Galilee.
Mary and Joseph (right) register for the census before Syrian governor Quirinius. Byzantine mosaic, c. 1315 CE.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Census at Bethlehem (1566), oil on wood panel, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Jan Luyken, Joseph and Mary taking the census (1700), etching and book print, Haarlem, Netherlands
Jan Luyken, Joseph and Mary taking the census (1703), etching and book print, Haarlem, Netherlands
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating population information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses include censuses of agriculture, traditional culture, business, supplies, and traffic censuses. The United Nations (UN) defines the essential features of population and housing censuses as "individual enumeration, universality within a defined territory, simultaneity and defined periodicity", and recommends that population censuses be taken at least every ten years. UN recommendations also cover census topics to be collected, official definitions, classifications and other useful information to co-ordinate international practices.
A census taker visits a family of indigenous Dutch Travellers living in a caravan in the Netherlands in 1925
An enumerator conducting a census survey using a mobile phone-based questionnaire in the rural Mutasa District in Zimbabwe in 2015