99:), of whom there were 3–5 in each of the 163 communes, and they therefore performed the count. This diverged from the instructions of the king, who had stated that the parish priests were to perform the census, but Árni and Páll presumably thought it would be more efficient to use the secular administration and to present the task to the magistrates in the
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rate was that repeated famines made it difficult to support a family. Additionally, servants were not expected to marry; their children would be paupers, and it is possible that separated and widowed people, particularly those who had become servants or paupers, were recorded as never having married.
188:
their babies. The census also reveals an unusually high number of single people and high age at first marriage; only 58% of women aged 40–59 had ever married. The rate of illegitimacy was also high, and
Iceland had a tradition of unmarried cohabitation, but the main reason for the low marriage
81:
In
October 1702, Árni and Páll wrote to the sheriffs of all the districts in Iceland with specifics of how the census survey was to be conducted. The instructions are more detailed than in the royal commission, showing that they had developed the idea. Árni's draft of this letter made in the spring
179:
in
Kollafjörður Bay, which definitely had residents at the time. It is also suspected that some young children were omitted, although it is conceivable that the lack of children under 8 is due to difficult years preceding the taking of the census; the overall age distribution of the census is very
106:
The count was made between
December 1702 and June 1703, in most places in March and April. Icelanders were aware of the uniqueness of the census, and referred to the winter of 1702/03 as "census winter". The census record for each district has been preserved, although in some cases the original
356:
paa at samle et rigtig mandtall ofver alle familierne der i landet, fra beste til ringeste mand, hvorudi de skulle specificere og forklare hosbondens og hustruens nafn, deres börn, og frenders nafn som hos dem, item alle tieneste karle, tieneste drenge tieneste quinder og piger, in summa ingen
86:
to assemble a true accounting of all families in that country, from the best to the lowest person, in which shall be specified and explained the husband's and the wife's name, their children, and friends' names who at their home, also all servantmen, servant youths servantwomen and girls,
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The census recorded 8,191 households, slightly more than 7,000 headed by a man and approximately 1,100 headed by a woman (13.8% of farms were managed by a woman, an unusually high percentage), in the following categories (which probably overlapped somewhat in practice):
118:, decided to use it to derive a land survey. The documents were loaned to Iceland in 1921 to be prepared for publication, and in 1927 under the terms of an agreement between Iceland and Denmark became the property of Iceland. They are preserved at the
184:, partly because they carried a heavier burden of physical work. In addition, infant mortality was higher than it would have been because Icelandic mothers, even more than other European countries at the time, customarily did not
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The census recorded the name, age, residence, and social standing of every inhabitant; it was the first such complete census. Those without fixed address were recorded under the place where they spent the night before Easter.
259:
122:. The livestock survey is also preserved, but is incomplete, although Skúli Magnússon's description of Iceland includes figures for each district. The livestock register has not been published.
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The census is almost completely accurate; only 497 people are registered twice, and no commune is missing, although later studies have shown some small omissions, for example the island of
493:
91:
no one omitted great and small, young and old, who are to be found in the whole country, wherewith the large number of poor at each location must be precisely observed and described.
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to perform a complete survey of
Iceland, then a Danish possession, in order to inventory its economic resources and propose improvements; this included the census as well as the
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509:
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undtagen store og smaa, unge og gamle, som i det helle land findes, hvorved dend store mengde af fattige ved hver sted nöie skal observeris og beskifves
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In association with the publication of the census, Statistics
Iceland derived the following information about the population of Iceland at that time:
522:
302:
315:
569:
476:
455:
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or land register. The royal commission, dated 22 May 1702, listed the census in its
Paragraph 8 and also required a count of
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uneven. The large difference between the numbers of males and females is notable. Research shows that men fared worse in
626:
37:
340:
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550:
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Kirsten
Hastrup, "A Question of Reason: Breast-Feeding Patterns in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Iceland,"
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and the
National Archives organised a conference to mark the 300th anniversary of the 1703 census.
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The district sheriffs delegated the task to the overseers of each poor-law district or commune (
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Cottages (inhabited by cotters living entirely or mostly from fishing rather than farming): 343
597:
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451:
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The census report was presented in the
Althing in June 1703 and then sent by Árni and Páll to
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and the oldest complete census of any country that has survived. It was listed in UNESCO's
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Lodgers (mostly single people, almost evenly split between men and women): 752
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111:
336:
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114:, where it was largely ignored until 1777, when the king's representative,
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542:. Hagstofa Íslands. Reykjavík: Gutenberg, 1924–47. OCLC 607579840.
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33:
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The Anthropology of Breast-Feeding: Natural Law or Social Construct
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Images of Contemporary Iceland: Everyday Lives and Global Contexts
64:, sheriff and vice-lawman. They were commissioned in 1702 by King
382:
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Manntal á Íslandi árið 1703: Ásamt manntali 1729 í þrem sýslum
359:. - cited in Um manntalið 1703, Icelandic National Archives.
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Manntalið 1703 þrjú hundruð ára: Greinar í tilefni afmælis
52:
The census was assembled and organized by two Icelanders,
385:: Total population 50,958; Males 23,126; Females 27,831.
560:Ólöf Garðarsdóttir and Eiríkur G. Guðmundsson, eds.
450:, Ed. Vanessa Maher, Oxford/Washington: Berg, 1992,
56:, who had just been appointed a professor at the
555:The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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502:
381:Statistics Iceland gives different figures on
280:, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1980,
250:, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2000,
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605:, Census site, Icelandic National Archives
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467:Gísli Pálsson and E. Paul Durrenberger,
471:, Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1996,
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603:Manntalsvefur Þjóðskjalasafns Íslands
588:, UNESCO Memory of the world registry
564:. Reykjavík: Hagstofa Íslands, 2005,
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575:- Proceedings of the 2003 conference
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14:
549:. Springville, Utah: Springville
538:Árni Magnússon and Páll Vidalín.
226:"The 1703 Census - Our heritage"
598:1703 Icelandic Census documents
231:. National Archives of Iceland.
224:Eiríkur G. Guðmundsson (2015).
592:The 1703 Census - Our heritage
547:Index to Icelandic Census 1703
278:Iceland, the First New Society
1:
133:Iceland's population in 1703
38:Memory of the World Register
383:its summary statistics page
341:Icelandic National Archives
120:Icelandic National Archives
658:
586:The 1703 Census of Iceland
165:Westfjord farthing: 17,831
82:states the census task as:
171:Eastfjord farthing: 5,186
141:Total population: 50,358
107:document has been lost.
58:University of Copenhagen
18:Icelandic census of 1703
632:Demographics of Iceland
622:18th century in Iceland
66:Frederick IV of Denmark
44:Procedure of the census
248:The History of Iceland
168:North farthing: 11,777
93:
29:
557:, 1968. OCLC 78458369
276:Richard F. Tomasson,
200:Outlying farms: 1,181
84:
627:Censuses by country
127:Statistics Iceland
508:Gunnar Karlsson,
492:Gunnar Karlsson,
433:Gunnar Karlsson,
368:Gunnar Karlsson,
354:Danish original:
337:Um manntalið 1703
301:Gunnar Karlsson,
246:Gunnar Karlsson,
197:Main farms: 5,915
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151:Females: 27,491
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116:Skúli Magnússon
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637:1703 in Europe
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642:1703 censuses
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62:Páll Vídalín
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616:Categories
521:Tomasson,
510:pp. 164-65
415:Tomasson,
399:Tomasson,
370:pp. 161-62
314:Tomasson,
211:References
186:breastfeed
112:Copenhagen
125:In 2003,
76:livestock
40:in 2013.
26:Icelandic
594:, (2015)
162:: 15,564
160:farthing
89:in summa
71:Jarðabók
533:Sources
182:famines
101:Althing
34:Iceland
30:manntal
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523:p. 107
494:p. 164
481:p. 166
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435:p. 163
303:p. 161
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260:p. 162
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158:South
97:hreppr
60:, and
22:census
551:Stake
417:p. 74
401:p. 73
316:p. 71
290:p. 72
229:(PDF)
177:Viðey
32:) of
566:ISBN
473:ISBN
452:ISBN
282:ISBN
252:ISBN
16:The
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