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Governments of every era have recognised the need to collect information on their most valuable asset - their people. The Babylonians and the Chinese held censuses mainly for military and taxation purposes. The Egyptians collected information on the population so that they could plan armies of people to build the pyramids and to redistribute land following the annual flooding of the Nile.

The Greeks and Romans held censuses of population many years before the birth of Christ. It was the five-yearly census ordered by Caesar Augustus which required every man in the Roman Empire to return to his place of origin, thus ensuring that Joseph and Mary travelled to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus.