Abstract of the answers and returns made pursuant to an act, passed in the forty-first year of His Majesty King George III. Intituled, “An act for taking an account of the population of Great Britain, and the increase or diminution thereof.” 2 vols. in 3.

The first census of England, Scotland and Wales. The study of population was one of the major concerns of political economy at this time and the first census came at a crucial point in the debate. When Malthus published his Essay on Population in 1798 demographic knowledge was necessarily limited. Rickman, a British government official and statistician, drafted the bill that became the 1800 Census Act, establishing for the first time a national decennial census of Britain’s general population.  After the Census Bill passed Rickman helped to carry out the first four British censuses, which included not only a population count, but also the collection and analysis of parish register returns. Once the first census results were known Malthus extensively revised and expanded his Essay, incorporating insights gained from the census and other sources, and published it virtually as new work in 1803. Digital facsimile of the first census reports from the Hathi Trust at this link.