When did England conduct its first national census?

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census A U.S. Census Bureau enumerator conducting a personal interview.

England conducted its first national census in 1801.1

While earlier inventories existed, such as the Domesday Book of 1086, these were not modern censuses; they were designed to identify individuals for specific purposes like taxation or military service rather than to understand the broader structure of society. The 1801 census marked the beginning of modern, countrywide enumeration in England for governmental and scientific purposes.1