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Paper short abstract:

With this proposal, we plan to analyze the seven censuses conducted in Transylvania by the Austrian authorities (after 1867 Austro-Hungarian ones) in order to capture the way how modernization of data collection, but, especially the information contained in these records, had been specialized

Paper long abstract:

Transylvania in the second half of the 19th century saw an accelerated process of modernization in terms of economic, social and cultural activities. Historians believed that this has had a strong impact, among other things, on the way the authorities had recorded the population of the province. Moreover, it is considered that the first truly modern census was conducted in Transylvania in 1850-1851, marking also the transition from "pre-statistical" to the "Statistics" as far as the method of accounting the demographic potential of the province is concerned.

With this proposal, we plan to analyze the seven censuses conducted in Transylvania by the Austrian authorities (after 1867 Austro-Hungarian ones) in order to capture the way how modernization of data collection, but, especially the information contained in these records, had been specialized. As it is well known, in the Habsburg Empire lived individuals belonging to more than ten ethnic groups and six denominations. Also in Transylvania coexisted in this period many peoples and religions, therefore we examine the criteria used by the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian authorities for defining ethnicity, to reassess the demographic policies of those who held power in a multinational state.