CENSUS TAKING IN MALTA

Early Population Counts

In 1240 A.D. circa, a report by a certain Abate Giliberto put the number of families living in the Islands of Malta and Gozo at 1,119. The Archives relating to Maltese medieval demographic history show that a "Census of Population and Production" was conducted in 1481 A.D. Its purpose was to record the local production and stocks of wheat, as well as to enumerate the consumers. At the time of its publication, it was quaintly described as a Census of "months" and "wheat". The results of this Census are not known, but three decades into the 17th century, specifically in 1632, a census recorded the number of people living in the Islands at 51,750. Table 1 depicts a series of population counts and estimates dating to the earliest records up to just before 1842, when the line of "modern censuses" was initiated. This table should be read with caution. Modern research has demonstrated the need to be extremely wary of the use of information emanating from early population counts. Documentation on Maltese medieval history is scanty and often unreliable when dealing with demographic and social data. It would seem that, in so far as demographic data prior to the 19th century are concerned, the only two reliable sources are (1) the Militia Lists and (2) the Parochial Registers.

Table 1. Population censuse and estimates pior to 1842

Year	Numbers
1240	1,119		Families (Census)
1530	33,000		estimate
1565	10,000		estimate
1582	20,000		estimate
1590	32,290		Census
1617	43,798		Census
1632	51,750		Census
1741	110,000		estimate
1807	93,054		Census
1823	112,204		estimate
1826	119,736		estimate
Source: Adapted from Census 1957

Censuses in the 19th Century

When the troops of the first French Republic invaded Malta in 1798, the Maltese population was said to number over 100,000.  Depredations during the French siege of Valletta brought it down to 93,054 (Census in 1807).  The information for this Census, which showed that 31 per cent of the population was concentrated in the environs of Valletta and Floriana, was abstracted from parochial registers.  According to a detailed report on the 1813 plague by Dr. W.H. Burrell, Principal Medical Officer of the Army in Malta, the total population was estimated at 111,000.

On March 21, 1842 the first census in a series of decennial censuses of which the 2005 Census will be the 16th in line was carried out.  This series was interrupted in the Second World War and in 1977 when, according to the criterion of the ten-year interval, a census should have been taken, but was not.  The five censuses held between 1842 and 1881 were authorised by an Official Notice published in the Malta Government Gazette.  Each housekeeper or head of the household was required to complete a form that was delivered by an official enumerator on a fixed date and subsequently collected, duly filled, five days after.  In view of the widespread illiteracy, the Notice stated:

"... to the effect that such forms may be filled up with accuracy and despatch, the Governor requests the well-informed  and respectable inhabitants to assist their neighbours in furnishing the required information.”

Censuses in the 20th Century

The subsequent five censuses, taken between 1891 and 1931, were underpinned by an Ordinance empowering the Governor to formulate regulations for the taking of a census within a specified period.  This was Ordinance No. II of 1891.  This year marked the first time that a penalty clause for non-response was inserted into census legislation.  In fact, Preliminary Remark No. 6 of the General Report  on the 1891 Census states:

"no serious obstacles were met with in the enumeration, and in the few instances in which information was refused, a simple warning that persons refusing to give the required information were liable to the penalties established by Law for contraventions sufficed to overcome all opposition.”

Permanent legislation for the taking of a census of population was enacted in Malta in 1948 on the occasion of the post-Second-World-War Census.  Act II of 1948 was passed by the Legislative Assembly and assented to by the Governor of Malta, Governor Sir Francis C.R. Douglas on 28th February 1948.  This Act constitutes the legal basis for all the population censuses taken in and after 1948 and also for the Census to be carried out in November 2005.  Table 2 presents a silhouette of all the censuses carried out from 1842 to date.

Table 2. Population: 1842-1995

A Hollerith punch card.  The Hollerith machine system was used from the mid-Fifties onwards by Maltese government departments for the processing of all types of data.  For several years, the machinery was centralised at the Central Office of Statistics (NSO Archives)

Table 3 comprises the schedule of census publication issued since 1957.

Table 3. A stock-take of census publications since 1957