Global Census Archive

GCA provides a single platform experience to explore the world’s census publications: all countries and regions, the complete depth of published census materials, including original census publications in e-book form, as well as modern tabular data in Excel format and GIS datasets for advanced users. Purchase the entire archive, or focus on specific regions, countries, years, or census rounds.

This truly global collection contains all available primary source and official census publications associated with a given census. GCA currently contains millions of pages of publications and billions of data points in GIS format, with more content continually added as new censuses are produced across the globe. Users can browse historical publications as full-image, full-text e-books (in any language), download tabular data in Excel format (for born-digital publications), and download GIS data (e.g., shapefiles of administrative boundaries)—all from a unified discovery interface.

GCA simplifies access to and increases the discoverability of demographic data from the world’s census publications. Research and analysis is improved with e-books that are fully machine-searchable, with full-image, cover-to-cover browsing of original census publications (as well as important supplementary primary source materials such as original census questionnaires and ephemera), plus the ability to download a variety of GIS and tabular data files to complement existing modern census collections.

Did you know? The content in GCA is equivalent to over 5,000 reels of microfilm or 30,000+ printed volumes.

Expand access and save valuable shelf space by replacing your physical census collections with Global Census Archive. Learn more.

What Kinds of Materials Are Included
in Global Census Archive?

Global Census Archive provides a centralized platform for all available published content that accompanies the release of a census. There are three broad categories for the types of materials that appear in Global Census Archive: publications, tabular data, and GIS data.

Publications

It’s not just books, especially in the modern era, where census publications now range from questionnaires used by the census authority to other materials, such as analytical results, maps, and public awareness brochures. Publications contain rich information about the methodology employed by a census authority and other additional insights that allow researchers to catch a glimpse of priorities and challenges of a given society at a specific point in time. Below is a list of some examples of publications that can be found within a census:

• Official results (analytical)
• Questionnaires
• Survey forms
• Maps, atlases
• Methodological and preparatory works
• Public campaign literature
• Newspaper and journal articles
• Conference materials
• Legislative works
• MARC records (available upon request)

Censuses produce information that is a meaningful complement to other qualitative data types from the same period, such as news media, that occurred simultaneously with the census to give deep historical context of a single country. Additionally, GCA provides incredibly large data sets for analyzing macro trends in a given census round to deliver wide coverage across multiple countries or regions.

Tabular Data

East View presents the original, unaltered tables as offered in the original book-style publications as PDFs that are both viewable directly on the platform and can be downloaded locally. Furthermore, East View also offers digital files of tabular data as made available by a nation’s official census authority. These Excel files are downloadable straight from the GCA platform to a researcher’s device where more robust statistical analysis can be performed.

GIS Data

Since the 2000s, authorities around the world have increasingly made their census outputs available as geographic information system (GIS) data. East View acquires the official outputs and formats the data into an easy-to-use geodatabase. These East View-created datasets are tailor-made for instant analysis and visualization using any GIS software. GIS datasets on the GCA platform include:

• Administrative boundary vector data
  • Feature classes
  • Shapefiles
• Full attribute level metadata
• A GIS data dictionary with native language and English-translated variables

All data and files are hosted on the platform itself. No need to worry about storing data within your institution. Researchers have easy access to GIS data and can download individual components of the dataset with the click of a button.

Download GIS data title list | View demo of GIS census data