Census

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈsɛnsəs/

Definitions

1. A formal process of collecting and analyzing demographic data about a population, which includes counting individuals and assessing their characteristics
2. An organized survey aimed at systematically gathering population information, focusing on various statistics related to demographics and characteristics
3. A systematic enumeration of a population that collects essential data regarding individual members and their distinguishing traits

Etymology: The Roman census was far more than a headcount. Every few years, Roman officials registered citizens along with their property, which determined their military duties and their tax obligations, and the procedure was tied closely to the republic's moral and social order. The Latin "cēnsus" came from "cēnseō," meaning "to assess" or "to estimate value," the same root behind "censor," the magistrate who oversaw this register and could strike a citizen's name from it for poor conduct. The word therefore began as a tool of assessment, of judging worth, before it narrowed to counting people. English borrowed the term directly from Latin, and it kept the Roman sense of an official registration for some time. The modern meaning of a population count, the enumeration of everyone in a country at a set moment, developed later and is the sense most readers now know. The Latin root behind the word is the same one that gives English its "censor," so the two words share a family despite their very different modern lives.

Synonyms: survey, poll, count, enumeration, headcount