From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcensuscen‧sus /ˈsensəs/ ●○○ noun (plural censuses) [countable] 1 COUNT/CALCULATEan official process of counting a country’s population and finding out about the people2 COUNT/CALCULATEan official process of counting something for government planning a traffic census
Examples from the Corpus
census• The government removed this question from its survey in the 1940 census.• Full details of the 1979 census have been published.• For married women under 60 there was a five-fold increase from 12 percent in 1931 to 57 percent at the 1981 census.• Therefore it is in the states' interest to inflate census figures.• Apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives and state legislatures is based on census data.• You see, no real work can begin until a proper census is taken.• When was the first U.S. census taken?• The total census of the towns comes to just under 300,000 people of whom some 60,000 were capable of bearing arms.From Longman Business Dictionarycensuscen‧sus /ˈsensəs/ noun (plural censuses) [countable]1an occasion when the population of a country is officially counted and details about the people are recordedthe 2001 Census of Great Britain and Northern Ireland2an occasion when something is officially counted for government planninga traffic censusOrigin census (1600-1700) Latin censere “to make a judgment about, tax” 