Historical Censuses Numbers from the Dutch

1
Historical Censuses Numbers from the Dutch

• Providing access to the Dutch Population census
  of 1971
• drs. L.J.G. Schreven

2
Structure

• Censuses in the Netherlands
• A very short history
• Digitising the 1971 census
• Approach, difficulties and solutions and state of
  affairs
• Census digitisation projects in the Netherlands
• Different projects in past, present and future

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Censuses in the Netherlands

• A very short history

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Censuses 1795 1889
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Censuses 1899 1971
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Main census objectives

• To determine the size of the population on a
  fixed point in time (statistic objective)
• To prove the reliability of the population
  registers (administrative objective)
• To examine the demographic and social-economic
  characteristics of the population (social
  objective)

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The end of an era

• In 1971 the last general census was held. Why?
  Unwilling population!
• Causes
• Deep scars left by World War 2
• Fear for an all-knowing government (Big Brother)
• Fear for computerised data on the whole society
• Consequences
• Public protest against the census
• Media attention to all issues concerning privacy
  policy
• Political pressure on Statistics Netherlands

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Results

• A new law concerning privacy was passed in 1970
• This delayed the census until 1971.
• Still there were some people unwilling to
  cooperate
• Opposition against censuses
• 1960 2 (absolute figure) unwilling citizens
• 1971 .2 percent unwilling (about 25.000)
• 1980 A census test showed an average
  unwillingness of 26 percent. In big urban areas
  this rose to almost 60 percent
• 1981 census was first postponed, later it was
  cancelled

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After 1971

• Register counts supplemented by random sample
  surveys.

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(dis)advantages

• Disadvantages regional splitting of data is
  impossible
• Advantages costs are down and results are faster
  available

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Summary

• Decennial censuses between 1829 and 1971
• Privacy controversy leads to cancelling 1981
  census
• Censuses are replaced by register counts and
  surveys
• Detailed annual statistics are introduced from
  the early nineties

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Digitising the 1971 census

• Approach, difficulties and solutions
• and state of affairs

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Approach

• Detailed description of the data
• Researching different methods of availability of
  data (and documentation)
• Manufacturing a test data file
• Researching the statistical security of data
• Preparing the digital archiving of data

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Difficulties

• Very soon after the project got underway data
  problems were discovered.
• Data were incomplete
• Missing labels
• Missing cases
• Data were false
• Impossible data

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Solutions

• Missing labels scanning editing reentering
• Missing cases recovering ancient data by going
  back to the source
• Impossible data reestablishing corrupt data

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Metadata and documentation

• Metadata in (D)DDI
• Documentation in Portable Document Format (PDF)

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Data availability Remote Execution

• The data are rendered available in cooperation
  with Statistics Netherlands.
• Privacy issues restrict availability, therefore
  we decided to use Remote Execution.
• To facilitate Remote Execution a test data file
  was constructed, which had to be secured.

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State of affairs

• On schedule
• June to September detailed descriptions of both
  the data and the documentation
• Updating the website (www.volkstellingen.nl)
• GIS component

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Neighbourhood in Focus
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Statline Cartographic
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Summary

• Difficulties with data were overcome
• Metadata and documentation are collected
• A test data file was constructed to facilitate
  Remote Execution
• The website will be updated
• Applications for regional analyses of the data
  will be available through Statistics Netherlands

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Census projects past, present and future

• Past Centennial census project (1899-1999)
• Present Digitising fund Royal Netherlands
  Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) (1795-1859,
  1930, 1960 and 1971)
• Future Life Courses in Context (1869-1989, 1909,
  1920 and 1947)

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Even more in the future?

• In 2005, all general population censuses will be
  available
• More in the future? NIWI hopes to participate in
  IPUMS-Europe.