The first population census in Hungary - statistical details from the empire of Joseph II (the "King With a Hat")

Similarly to many countries in Europe and in the world, Hungary will also hold a population census in 2011.

It is worth looking at a few implications of the first population census in Hungary, which is hallmarked by the name of Joseph II. Although there are several contradictions in connection with this census, it can be said that this event, which took place 225 years ago, was a novelty then in Hungary.

The definition of the date of the population census was a bone of contention for those examining the issue subsequently. Namely, as Joseph II intended, after the census, based on its documents vital events had to be further calculated. The very census took place in 1784-1785, however, taking into account these later works, the interval of 1784-1787 can be considered as the period of data collection for the population census, and among the materials "mined" from archives in the Carpathian Basin, researchers found the data of either this or that year.

Concerning the event there were many specialities. It was in connection with this population census that our houses were numbered all over the country. (The management of addresses has been a fundamental issue in statistics to date.) A number was painted on the front of each house, and it also had to be displayed somewhere at the back, in the covered part of the house. In the opinion of the head of the court of Vienna there was no problem with the numbering of houses, since the Burg, the castle of the sovereign was numbered, too. Yet, the nobility of Komárom county made a proposal that if their noble dwellings were lumped together with houses of common people in such a way, at least green paint should be used in their case instead of black. (The emperor did not comply with their request.)

One of the main characteristics and revolutionary novelties of this population census was exhaustiveness, which can be described by German precision both in social and spatial aspects. All the people were counted: men and women, Christians and Jews, young and old as well as short and tall people, large farmers and serfs, soldiers and citizens, craftsmen and servants, priests and clerks, and those in Hungary and abroad. But unlike today’’s practice, not everyone was asked the same questions, and specific distinctions were made as well. From this point of view, the main principle was prioritisation according to military or economic usefulness. For example, men over 40 years of age and too short men were recorded in different columns than the younger and taller ones, respectively. (Though at the time of the Hungarian census the measurement by linear measure was definitely forbidden in the instructions, Austrian officers involved as specialists in the census could very well remember the former Austrian guide, where these size categories were quantified...) Heads of the questionnaires truly reflect what was said above.

Individual questionnaire
Summary questionnaire

The budget of the census was pretty much underestimated. There were debates about for example who could use a team as an aid, or whether Austrian officers (!) should receive firewood as extra supply, since from the beginning in late autumn in 1784, there were enumerators, going from village to village, who travelled all winter long and could return only by spring 1785. They had very different performances: statements were made of 385 people per day on average in Cegléd, compared with only 40 persons per day in Sopron.

The processing of the data was made surprisingly fast, over a year. Then they saw that they had had to count much more people than expected... It is worth citing the great words of Gusztáv Thirring, one of our most excellent demographers, on the situation report on Hungary, a country sundered by the Turkish rule:"Despite all its deficiencies we must acknowledge that the emperor rendered a great service concerning the knowledge of the country. Right until his time neither the government nor public administration had a positive knowledge on the real number and topographic distribution of the population of the country. The most excellent scholars estimated it to be 3-4 million. And now the new population census points out that nearly nine million people live in the area of the countries of Saint Steven’’s crown..."

The work done provided important information despite all its deficiencies and anomalies. As a heritage of Turkish times, urban population remained less than 10%, and there were hardly any large towns. The population of the some 13,000 villages and 1300 farmsteads could live isolatedly. Some 80% of the male adult population was represented by the peasant population, 8% by priests and nobles and hardly 4% by craftsmen and tradesmen. Instead of the usual distribution that is in line with biological laws a large majority of men was caused by the repopulation of the liberated areas. The non-adult male population, accounting for 35%, referred to a potential of dynamic development. Besides the number nothing is known about the female population, and data on the army were handled as a military secret. Almost a hundred years passed until the first independent population census in Hungary, planned byKároly Keleti , finally answered these questions, too. 

You can read further details on the census for example in the volume containing data by villages, published in 1960, or in articles of the Hungarian Statistical Review.

Sources (in Hungarian):

II. József magyarországi népszámlálásai (Joseph II’’s population censuses in Hungary) - Thirring Gusztáv - 1931. február
A népszámlálások története és főbb jellemzői Magyarországon (History and main characteristics of population censuses in Hungary) - Őri Péter - Pálházy László - 1989. augusztus-szeptember

Őri Péter (2002): Hatalom és demográfia. II. József népszámlálása Magyarországon I. A KSH Népességtudományi Kutatóintézetének Történeti Demográfiai Évkönyve (Power and demography. Joseph II’’s population census in Hungary, part I. Historical Demographic Yearbook of HCSO’’s Demographic Research Institute), 2002. pp. 39-73.

Az első magyarországi népszámlálás (1784-1787) (The first population census in Hungary (1784-1787)), KSH, Budapest, 1960