How are populations counted?

It’s important to count the population of a country so that the society can provide good levels of service for schools, healthcare, transportation and more. Typically, the population count is determined by municipality or country region, then comprised. This is called a census.

But a census can be quite costly, and a growing number of people are reluctant to participate in manual counting in modern days. In order address these problems, most industrialized countries have developed several new and less expensive methods based on existing data obtained from different surveys and population registers. 

Methods to count populations for a country vary, but counting will almost always involve some level of estimation or calculation. Very few countries have a complete register of every person living in the nation.

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