With growing international economic activity in the mid-1800s, the Austrian authorities recognized the need for comprehensive demographic and economic data. Based loosely on the recommendations
...Census
In order to properly administer their crown lands, the Austrian authorities occasionally compiled lists of citizens. These lists were used to follow and regulate various aspects of society particularly taxation and conscription.
The earliest lists were simply head counts taken for taxation purposes. The first census to record people by name was conducted in 1651 in Bohemia. The Catholic Habsburg rulers ordered the 1651 census of the Czech lands to determine the religion of the people (Bohemia and Moravia had been predominantly Protestant prior to 1624) and the prospects of their conversion. Summaries remain of a 1702 count of all people over the age of 10. Censuses were carried out in 1754 and 1762 and revisions were to be made every few years. Counts were taken in 1770 and 1776. These lists were largely for military purposes.
The first modern census was conducted in 1857. Additional censuses were completed in 1869, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1921, 1930, 1939, 1950, 1961, 1970, 1980, 1991, 2001, and 2011.
Beginning in 1724, a census of Jews was periodically taken.
List of subjects according to their faith (1651)
As the Hapsburgs began to reassert their power after the end of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), they sought to re-Catholicize the Protestant-leaning Bohemian Crown lands. In order to determine
...Conscription lists
A 1753 edict from Empress Maria Theresia ordered a periodic enumeration of the entire population throughout the Austrian empire. The main purpose was to create a comprehensive ...