Definition
Census
A census collects information from every member of the population being studied.
What it means
First name the population, then include everyone in it. For a class census, every pupil is asked or measured. A census aims for complete coverage of that population, but missing responses or recording errors can still affect the results.
Remember it
Census means the whole group, not a slice of it.
Example
The library asks all 240 pupils in the school how many books they borrowed last month. Because every pupil in the defined school population is included, the study is a census of that school.
Watch for
Asking every pupil in one school is not a census of all pupils in the town; the population named matters.
Common mix-up
A large sample is still a sample if some population members are not included.
Exact meaning
A census is a data-collection study that includes every member or unit of a defined population, rather than selecting only a sample.