History of census in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

The diploma thesis deals with the history of a census in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The main objective is to describe the importance of the census in individual historical stages and to give a comprehensive picture of the development of censuses in these countries from the beginning to the present. The Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland represent Central European countries that are geographically and culturally close to each other. In many historical periods, they have undergone very similar social development, but in terms of demographic statistics and population data collection, they have often been different. The beginning of the census events can be traced back to the history of ancient states. However, during the Middle Ages, the development of the census stagnated. Since the middle of the 18th century, the history of real population censuses in Europe has been dated. It means that the censuses started to be carried out repeatedly and systematically throughout the country. In Austria, the first nationwide census took place in 1754, and since times of Maria Theresa, the Habsburg monarchy has clearly dominated this area. In the German countries (with the exception of Prussia, which was in the forefront of development), the nationwide census was carried out only during the 19th century, similarly in Switzerland in 1850. During this period, Switzerland was delayed compared with the other mentioned countries. The main reasons were fear of the citizens' mistrust in the census, and later discussion about the protection of personal data, which also played an important role in Germany, especially in the 1980s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, in all these countries the census content was expanded, the methodology was specified, and international data comparability was promoted. Almost throughout the history of the census, the traditional census method has played a major role, but in recent times the register-based census has begun to promote in many European countries. During the census in 2011, the Czech Republic used the data from the registers for the first time next to the traditional census method, and for the census in 2021 is being planned the increase in the rate of using the register data. Germany and Switzerland used during the last census round primarily register data combined with sample surveys. Austria in 2011 moved directly from the traditional form to the pure "administrative" census method without accompanying population surveys. Using register data brings several advantages, especially lower cost, the actual data may be available at shorter intervals, and their obtaining does not task the population.