History of population in a digitised form: where to find historical statistics?
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Leading Specialist, Parliamentary and Social Sciences Centre, National Library of Estonia
The article gives an overview of the publishing of statistical publications.
The collection and publishing of population statistics has changed considerably since the end of the 19th century, when the first population censuses were conducted in Estonia. Digitisation has made historical data easier to analyse and use. Today, many im-portant statistical publications and results of censuses are available in digital archives, supporting both research and policy-making.
The population census of 1881 covered the three Baltic governorates and its re-sults are available in digitised form. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Cent-ral Bureau of National Statistics was established, and “Eesti Statistika kuukiri” (Es-tonian Statistics Monthly), which covered a range of socio-economic data, including population statistics, began to be published on a regular basis. The first census in independent Estonia took place in 1922 and its results are also digitally available. During the Soviet period, little information on the censuses was published, but the collection of statistics continued.