Throughout the history of man, enumerations have been taken of the residents of nations. An "enumeration" is a counting or numbering of something. Therefore, in the case of a nation's enumeration, it entails a counting of the nation's residents. Another word for the counting, or enumeration, of a nation's residents is "census".

  History has been witness to some very famous enumerations. According to the Bible (ref: Numbers, Chapter 3), God spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, and told him to: "Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families; every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them." The Bible (ref: St. Luke, Chapter 2) also records the census decreed by Caesar Augustus just prior to the birth of Jesus Christ in order to obtain a count of the people from whom he would collect a tax.

  In the year 1086 another famous census was undertaken by William the Conqueror of England. Known as the Domesday Book, this census was a survey of all the residents of England and their holdings at the time. It was one of the first census in which livestock were accounted for. It provided a wealth of information about the population and their property.