Using NAPP Census Data to Construct the Historical Population Register for Norway

Abstract

A Historical Population Register (HPR) for Norway for the period 1735–1964 will connect with the national Central Population Register for the period 1964–present. Constructed using a core of North Atlantic Population Project census data, the HPR will be supplemented with other local sources. It will include 9.7 million people, linking them to 37.5 million entries from censuses, church records, and other sources. After briefly recounting the history of population registers in Norway, the author describes the database and how it is being assembled and gives examples and suggestions about what can be done with it.

Keywords:

• census
• demography
• family history
• migration
• Norway
• registers

Notes

In Iceland the private company deCODE Genetics linked genealogical information from censuses, ministerial records, and other sources into a closed longitudinal database extending over several centuries.

1. National taxation introduced another administrative player to the collection of population data. Beginning in 1957, employees were supposed to have their taxes deducted from their monthly or weekly salaries rather than at the end of the year. This increased the importance of a detailed system of population registration and prompted the relocation of maintenance of the Central Population Registry to the Taxation Authority in 1990. From that date, an updated copy of the register was also maintained in Statistics Norway.

2. Although we do not know the size of the historical population currently covered in transcribed source material, we can make a guesstimate. If we were to simply sum the population figures from the 1801, 1865, 1910, and 1960 censuses, some individuals will be enumerated twice. The four de jure population totals have 8.6 million records. If we leave out persons old enough to be present in the previous of these four censuses, it is likely that 2 million persons are not included in our transcribed, machine-readable records. These will mainly be people living between the four censuses, and we do not yet know how many of these are included in other transcribed sources such as excerpts from the church records.

3. In a local parish database where 2,309 persons in the baptism lists were linked to the 1910 census, 479 had a discrepancy in the birth date because the date, the month, or the year was wrong.

4. Information on mental illness is available both in special illness fields in the census forms and in the combined de jure or de facto data on absentee persons who might be noted as being in mental hospitals on census day (Thorvaldsen 2006).

5. Censuses for the period until 1960 have been transferred from Statistics Norway to the National or Regional Archives. It is standard procedure in the National Archives to grant access to researchers upon a vetting of their academic status and statistical intentions.