Some aspects of Danish rural population structure in 1787

Abstract

Abstract Two population censuses were held in Denmark in the eighteenth century, one in 1769 and the other in 1787. That of 1769 was rather primitive, since it consisted merely of a table for each parish setting forth the numbers of persons in various broad categories of age, civil status and occupation, and differentiating them by sex. This census therefore offers only a partial insight into Danish population structure; moreover, the completeness of the census has been much debated.1 The census of 1787 is of far superior quality, because it was based on detailed nominal rolls showing for each individual particulars of name, position in the household, age, civil status and occupation; nearly all these original nominal rolls survive. Because it is voluminous, this valuable sources has, however, been utilised almost exclusively for local and genealogical studies, while national studies of population trends have been based chiefly upon the tables compiled from it by government officials at the end of the eig...