a periodic count of the population
"The government will conduct another census next year to update the national population figures."
An official count or enumeration of members of a population (not necessarily human), usually residents or citizens in a particular region, often done at regular intervals.
"The local government scheduled a census to accurately count every household and pet living within the city limits before allocating emergency funds."
In plain English: A census is an official count of every person living in a country to gather basic information about them.
"The government will conduct a census next year to count every person living in the country."
Usage: Use "census" to refer specifically to an official government count of a population's size and characteristics, such as the national decennial survey. Do not use it for general counts or informal tallies of people or objects.
To conduct a census on.
"The government plans to conduct a census on every household in the city next month to update population statistics."
In plain English: To census something means to count every single person or item in a specific group.
"The government will census every household in the city next month to count the population."
Usage: As a verb, to census means to count or register every member of a specific population, typically for official government records. You would use it when describing an organized effort to gather data about people in a particular area, such as "The agency will census the homeless population this winter."
The word census comes from the Latin verb censeo, which means to assess or value property for taxation purposes. It entered English through the influence of the related title "censor," originally referring to Roman officials who conducted these assessments.