Geographic origin of individuals in French population censuses

In the nineteenth century, France introduced political and legal criteria aimed at establishing who was or was not a member of the national community. To this end, questions on geographic origins were added to the nominal lists and individual schedules in French censuses. By the end of the century, the emergence of Nation States had redrawn the political map of Europe. Amid rising immigration, France's concern was not only to count the population but also to draw a statistical distinction between French and foreign residents, and between French citizens by birth and naturalized citizens. In the second half of the twentieth century, statisticians increasingly sought data about origins ; this information now needed to cover the life histories of new entrants to the national community. After reviewing the historical background, this article compares the treatment of origins in France's general population censuses with examples from other countries. The authors thus shed light on the distinctiveness of the French approach-in particular, its classification of persons by national citizenship and by means of French nationality acquisition