Swedish Code of Statutes 1890, appendix 52
Statistics Sweden's circular letter
To all vicars and parish priests, except in Stockholm, regarding the general census to be taken at the end of the year 1890;
Issued in Stockholm on the 13th of September 1890
The government has through a letter of the 1st September this year ordained the following:
That the census information for the entire country, except the city of Stockholm, should be provided, in accordance with the announcement of the 4th of November 1859, by vicars and parish priests in the form of extracts from the catechetical register [Husförhörslängd] of each parish, or from lists of persons belonging to the parish. For the city of Stockholm the information should be compiled in the same way as for the 1880 census. This means that the information that should be provided by the citizens of Stockholm for the 1891 tax census should also contain those special details that are necessary for the 1890 census. The information should thereafter by city officials be extracted and provided as census information.
That the contents of the census information should be the same as ordained for the 1880 census while observing that the information about the mentally ill should be given in accordance with the decree of the 23rd of December 1885 regarding specific annual information about the mentally retarded and so called idiots. Those persons that formerly have had full mental capacity should be noted as "mentally ill", while those who since their childhood have lacked full mental capacity should be noted as "idiots".
That the extracts from the catechetical registers should contain transcripts of the special list, made in accordance with the circular letter of the 20th of January 1865. The list of "non-existent" includes persons remaining in the catechetical register but not living in the places they are recorded. The transcripts and the extracts should only contain those people that have been recorded, and not deleted from the records, during the period 1881 to 1890.
That the ward supervisors, in the city of Stockholm, should, each one for his ward, produce a list of those persons, who, although they remain in the tax census lists by the end of the year 1890, have not been present for the tax census registration in the beginning of the year 1891. It should be noted that those persons that reappear, before the completion of the list, should be counted as if they had been present in the original tax census registration.
That regardless of what information the aforementioned census records could give about prisons, hospitals, asylums, nursing homes, institutions for the deaf-mute and for the blind and other such institutions, full census information about all persons belonging to, or living in, such institutions, regardless if they, in the parish registers, are recorded as residing in the institution or not, should be sent in by the director or governing board of the institution.
That the Statistics Sweden has to receive and process all aforementioned extracts and lists. The Statistics Sweden has the right to take all measures, and to give all instructions, that are necessary for the preparation and taking of the census. This should, for the census in the city of Stockholm, be done in cooperation with the office of the governor-general [Överståthållareämbetet].
As a result of the government letter the Statistics Sweden hereby states the following for all vicars and parish priests, except in the city of Stockholm.
a. That the census is intended to show the status at the end of the calendar year, at the 31st of December 1890. All the sources necessary for the census should be carefully completed no later than this day, while observing that changes that have occurred after the aforementioned day should not be regarded. Children born in the year 1891 or persons moving in to the parish that year should not be included in the extracts, but people existing in the catechetical register before 1891 who have died in 1891 should be recorded as being parish members at the end of the year 1890.
b. That the census information, which should be provided by vicars and parish priests except in the city of Stockholm, should be recorded with the enumeration forms that will be sent out by the Statistics Sweden. With the enumeration forms an example form will also be sent out, in order to give guidance regarding the use of the enumeration forms.
c. That the extracts should be provided for every parish or denomination that has a catechetical register or a similar list of persons. When a deanery consists of several parishes new forms should be written for every parish.
d. That if a parish is divided, between two or more counties, extracts should be provided for each part of the parish, as if the parish part was a parish of its own. In these cases the word "parish" in the heading of the form should be changed to "parish part".
e. That the heading of every census enumeration form should contain the parish name. Furthermore it should be noted how many pages that is provided for each parish or parish part. Each page should also be numbered.
f. The enumeration form is divided into 14 columns with the following content:
Col. 1: That persons belonging to the same household or consumption unit should be kept together with a clearly visible bracket in order to give Statistics Sweden the necessary guidance to count the number and size of the households or consumption units.
Col. 2: That the names of villages or other places of residence (blocks or wards in cities) should be written on a special row and underlined. It should be noted if the village or place of residence belongs to another judicial district than the rest of the parish. The word "urban district" [köpingslikt område] should also be added for those rural areas where the population is concentrated, including at least 100 persons, and where the houses are concentrated along one or more streets, whereby the area takes on the appearance of a small town (like for example some suburbs, railway stations, fishing villages, loading sites, factory sites or larger rural villages). It should be noted if a place of residence belongs to such an "urban district".
That for every village or place of residence follows the list of persons that should contain the full name of every person, with the given name before or after the last name according to the custom in the catechetical registers. There should also be a note about the person's position within the family, for example wife, son, daughter etcetera. Appropriate abbreviations may be used. No person may occupy more than one row in the enumeration form.
Col. 3: That, if possible, an accurate and complete information should be provided about occupation, office, service or trade (for example landlord, farmer, tenant farmer, crofter, settler, saw mill owner, shoemaker, tailor, shoemaker apprentice, tailor apprentice, domestic worker, servant, poor, vagrant, prisoner etcetera). It should not only be written "worker" or "factory worker", instead additional information should be provided (for example: farm worker, saw mill worker, worker at N. N. match factory etcetera). An occupation should also be recorded for a woman if she exercises an occupation or a trade. If someone has more than one occupation they should all be recorded. The first occupation should be regarded as the main occupation. Also if a person formerly has had an occupation, but currently is without employment, the former occupation may be recorded. An occupation can also be recorded, to ensure the possibility of future identification of a person, if the person is commonly called by the name of a profession. Similarly some titles can be recorded (for example farmer and former sergeant, landlord and chamberlain) while other titles that do not give information about service, occupation or trade are of no value for the listing of occupations.
Col. 4: That only the following disabilities are to be recorded: mental illness, blindness and if a person is deaf-mute. When recording mental illness, "idiot" is recorded for someone who has been mentally retarded since his childhood and "mentally ill" is recorded for someone who has been mentally healthy earlier. Regarding "blindness" it should be observed that also small children should be recorded as having this disability. For others only those who are unable to orientate themselves with their eye sight (lacking locomotorvision) should be recorded as blind. Similarly persons who are only deaf should not be recorded as deaf-mute. It should be recorded if a disability is known to be hereditary or if it is shared by close relatives.
That in column 4 it should for foreign citizens, living in the parish, be recorded as accurately as possible to which foreign power the person is subject. Recording names such as "Germany", "The German Empire" or "Austria" is not sufficient, instead a state should be recorded, for example Prussia, Saxony, Saxony-Altenburg, Hamburg, Hungary etcetera. It should be observed that if a note about nationality is missing it is assumed that the person is a Swedish citizen. A note should however be made if a person has become a Swedish citizen but has a birth place which can lead to believe that the person has a foreign nationality.
That for every Swedish citizen who belongs to a foreign ethnicity a note should be made in column 4 using the words Finn, Sami, Roma etcetera. It should be observed that even if the ethnicity usually can be determined from the language commonly used in the household this should not always be regarded as the deciding factor. It is known that Swedish families, living among Finns in the county of Norrbotten, have in recent times adopted the Finnish language as the family language. For the Sami population it is of special interest to record their different forms of trade (for example mountain Sami, forest Sami, fishing Sami etcetera). This should be recorded in column 3.
That for those persons living in the parish and have a foreign religious belief, and not belong to a denomination that independently report population statistics to Statistics Sweden, the foreign faith should be recorded in column 4. If a person legally has exited the Swedish church a note "exited" should be made, abbreviations may be used. In the same column "not baptized" should be noted for those children that, for confessional reasons, haven't been baptized within the Swedish church. For persons having a foreign faith it should be observed that according to §8 in the government decree of the 31st of October 1873 these people should be recorded in the catechetical register. The list of them should be included at the end of the extracts, but before the final summation so they won't be excluded from the summation of population for the parish and the country.
That for those persons who are recorded in the catechetical register but are known to be living outside the parish a notification using the word "absent" should be made in column 4.
Col. 5: That the information about birth year must be recorded with the accuracy needed for the summation of the Swedish life length tables and mortality tables. Special consideration should be given to information about very old people (over 90 years).
Col. 6: That even if the exclusion of birth place normally implies that the person is born within the same parish for which the extracts are made it is better to explicitly record the birth parish name, appropriately abbreviated, even in those cases, in the same way as it always must be done if the birth place is outside the parish. For rural parishes the county must also always be recorded.
Col. 7-14: That for a correct distribution of sex and marital status a stroke should be made in the proper columns in accordance with the column heading. The strokes should be made also for small children. It is of utmost importance that no confusion is made between the columns.
h. That the extract from the catechetical register should, after the final summation, under the heading "remaining non-existent since the years 1881-1890", include a list containing full name, occupation and birth year for those people who during the years 1881-1890 have been recorded as "non-existent", not present in the parish in accordance with the circular letter of the 20th of January 1865 regarding exclusion from the catechetical register of persons not present in the parish. It is also desirable if a note stating the probable new place of residence could be recorded for persons in this list. If there are no "remaining non-existent" persons since the years 1881-1890 this should be noted in the extracts.
i. That the correctness of the extract should be confirmed by the vicar or parish priest with a signature on the last page of the extract.
j. That the extracts from the catechetical registers should be sent to Statistics Sweden together with the aforementioned summaries for the year 1890 from the books of births, marriages and deaths. The information should be sent within the stipulated time that is before the end of February 1891. However if there are obstacles one month's grace may be given for the delivery of the extracts and the summaries.
Stockholm on the 13th of September 1890