How to say "census" in Japanese
Choosing the right word
- nounThe katakana loanword, a direct borrowing of English 'census'. It is intelligible, but as a less common option it is seldom the word you actually need for the ordinary sense.
- 人口調査じんこうちょうさnounA transparent compound meaning literally 'population survey'. It fits 'census' when you mean a survey of a population in the literal sense, and it does not carry the 'complete enumeration' nuance that 全数調査 and 悉皆調査 have.
- 人別改にんべつあらためnounA historical term: the population surveys, i.e. censuses, conducted in the Edo period. You will meet it in historical writing; it is not used for present-day censuses.
- 全数調査ぜんすうちょうさnounLiterally 'a survey of the whole number': a complete enumeration covering every member of the group studied, as opposed to a sample survey. This is the word for 'census' in its statistical sense.
- 悉皆調査しっかいちょうさnounAlso a term for a complete enumeration: 悉皆 means 'all, every one without exception', so the word emphasizes that the survey takes in every case. It covers the same ground as 全数調査.
For the statistical sense of a complete enumeration use 全数調査 or 悉皆調査; 人口調査 is a plain population survey; 「センサス」 is the katakana loanword; 人別改 is only the historical Edo-period census.
Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only
Japanese equivalents
