Abstract
A NATIONAL REGISTER is, in essence, a continuous census. It is best regarded as a means of obtaining and recording that accurate knowledge of its human resources which the advance of science has made necessary to a civilized community. For more than a century past a periodic census has given us a record, at approximately ten-year intervals, of the numbers and distribution of the population in Great Britain, together with varying amounts of information about its composition as to sex, age, occupations, and so on. These records have become fuller during that time; and there has been pressure to make them also more frequent. A quinquennial census has been authorized, though not carried out. Now, under the stress of war, we have begun the transition from a periodic to a continuous record. Of course, it is not possible to publish continuously; but it should be possible to issue quarterly returns, akin to those now submitted by the registrars-general in respect to births, deaths, and marriages.
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The National Register. Nature 144, 609–610 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144609a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144609a0