MEANING
An organized count intended to include every member of a defined population, often collecting further information about them.
Use it for
distinguishing a full-population count from sampling; defining who a study intended to enumerate; qualifying coverage errors in an official countDistinguishes an intended enumeration of an entire population from a sample, without implying perfect coverage. Writing functions: Research / Methodology, Evidence.
Words that belong together
- a population census
- conduct a census
- census data
On the page
The project attempted a census of the surviving workshops rather than a sample of the largest firms.
Even a census can miss people or record them incorrectly, so intended coverage is not the same as error-free data.
Word forms
- Base
- census
- Past tense
- censused
- Past participle
- censused
- Present participle
- censusing
Usage notes
Count noun: census; plural censuses, not censi. The rare verb census is established; censuses, censused, censused, censusing. Future will census. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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