'Lies, Damned Lies and State-istics': Counting 'Real Inhabitants' in the Census (Belgium, 1846–1947)

This chapter focuses on the premises underlying one of the main instruments that states have used to “embrace” their populations, viz. the modern population census. In many nation-states, statisticians opt for the household in its residence habituelle or “habitual place of residence” as the census’ basic unit of observation. By analyzing the residential categories in the Belgian census, this chapter seeks to illuminate governmental and societal expectations regarding membership and belonging. Its focus is on the period between the first Belgian population census (1846) and the tenth, which was taken shortly after the Second World War (1947), a time frame within which de jure specifications of residence and resident populations have come to define the state-istical representations of the nation-state.