The 1801 Census
The third census took place in 1801. The royal rescript of November 28, 1800, only stated that exact information about the size of the population and its distribution according to age, sex, and occupation would be ‘‘useful.’’ The census was taken in Denmark, Norway, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland, but was postponed in the German provinces until 1803. Later research has only found minor errors, which might influence some local studies but was not significant for the overall results. Most of the procedure and instructions were the same as in 1787. The few differences demonstrate that the civil servants in the Rentekammer wanted to improve the quality of the census based on their experience with the earlier censuses. An important change was that the census took place on February 1, 1801. Fewer people were expected to be away from their homes at that time of the year. It was only the largest ships of the merchant navy, sailing part of the year in more southern waters, which were at sea in February. Most of the ships in the northern European trade stayed in port during the first three months of the year.
Read more about this topic: Census In Denmark