Cairo -

As a result of years of huge effort, according to specialists, a team from the Egyptian Documentation House succeeded in digitizing the first population census of Egypt that took place in 1848, and it was the first census conducted in a country outside Europe.

In the digitization process of the Egyptian census, the research team, headed by Mohamed Saleh, professor of economics at the University of Toulouse Capitol, relied on the original handwritten census records in Arabic preserved in 7,000 records within the Egyptian National Archives.

The census, which took place about 170 years ago and took 3 years to prepare, included all individuals - men, women and children - within the political borders of Egypt at that time, including the Sinai and the deserts of western and eastern Egypt.

I am very happy to announce the public release of Egypt's 1848 and 1868 individual-level population census samples.

The digitization of these samples is a project that I've worked on since my PhD in 2009-2012 (1/n) https://t.co/saEctIGoWg

— Mohamed Saleh (@msaleh1982) March 30, 2022

amazing numbers

At the present time, the population of Egypt is about 103 million citizens, excluding residents of other nationalities on its lands, while the people did not exceed 4.3 million people throughout the country in 1848.

The 1848 census covered nearly 92% of the population residing in 18 provinces, excluding prisoners and immigrants outside the country, soldiers residing in military barracks, who were enumerated by the Ministry of War at the time, and non-Ottoman foreign nationals who were enumerated by their consulates.

It was based on dividing the urban areas into a section and sheykha or a quarter, while the rural areas were divided into centers and villages.

The census included the individual's name, age, religion, profession, legal status (free, slave), place of birth, current residence, type of housing (private property, endowment, renter, gift, guardianship), and health status (without disability, disabled).

Thareed


- Today there was a scientific breakthrough in the study of Egyptian history, and for those studying economic history and studying Egyptian history in general

- Dr. Muhammad Saleh with a team from the Documentation House were able to digitize the first population census to take place in #Egypt in the year 1848 during the era of Muhammad Ali, and the census that came after it during the reign of Khedive Ismail


1/6 https://t.co/PhnDtmSNDt

— Dr.

Ahmed Shoukry Rashad (@ahmshoukry) April 4, 2022

Religion and nationality

For decades, the Egyptian government has not disclosed the lineage of Muslims to Christians in the country, and speculation abounded about the secret behind this, but the real reason remained as mysterious as the census.

However, it seems that those who carried out the population survey more than 170 years ago were not sensitive to the ideological census. The numerical survey revealed that the proportion of Muslims in the governorates of Cairo and Alexandria in 1848 amounted to 89% of the total population, compared to 6% of Christians and 1% of Jews. , and 4% of non-specified religion.

As for the rest of the governorates, the proportion of Muslims reached 92%, compared to 6% of Christians, and 2% of those who did not specify a religion, with no Jews in those areas.

As for the nationality of the Egyptian population, the percentage of Egyptians in Cairo and Alexandria governorates reached 87%, Turks 3%, Europeans 1%, Nubians 1%, Africans 1%, and Levantines 1%.

While the percentage of Egyptians in the rest of the governorates is about 97%, and the Turks are 1%.

The number of slaves was also counted throughout the country, as their number at that time reached 2% of the total population.

huge effort

The news of the digitization of the first population census in Egypt was celebrated by specialists in the fields of economics and history, as well as pioneers of social networking sites.

For his part, Assistant Professor of Economics Ahmed Shukri Rashad Rashad said that the country's first population census is a scientific breakthrough for students of economic history and Egyptian history in general, adding that those in charge of the digitization process made a terrible effort.

Rashad said - via a tweet on Twitter - that the census contains the names of all residents, including men, women, children and slaves, but rather includes an inventory of individuals within the same dwelling.

The economic expert explained that the census that took place in the middle of the 19th century was not for the purpose of collecting taxes as some promote, as it included the census of women and children, two categories that were not among the taxpayers.

Regarding the importance of this census, he stressed that it opens very important historical questions, such as those related to evaluating the industrial experience of the former ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, and how the country was affected by foreign colonialism.

He stressed that the work team that handled the digitization process made the population census data in Egypt available on the ipums website, which is the largest population database in the world.

pharaonic census

It seems that the ancient Egyptians had concerns about the population count thousands of years ago. The head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Khairy Barakat, explained that the Pharaonic civilization was one of the earliest civilizations in making sure to know the population census.

The government official does not have a specific date for the population inventory at the time of the Pharaohs, explaining - in press statements - that the first population census was conducted in 3440 or 2500 BC.

He added that the ancient Egyptians used to resort to the population census for various purposes, the most important of which was preparing for military operations and fighting battles.

Historical reports and research talk about the fact that the first population census of Egypt took place in the early 19th century, during the reign of Governor Muhammad Ali, who ruled Egypt from 1805, for the purpose of collecting taxes, which was called at the time "the census of souls", where the census counted about 2.5 million people.