Census counts of Pygoscelis penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc are conducted both regularly around field stations and opportunistically from ships with the goal of assessing the breeding abundances and trends of these indicator species. Regional trends and abundances are often more policy-relevant than population-specific metrics, but survey patterns in the area have not been planned to optimize regional inference. We evaluated the ability of several monitoring schemes to describe regional trends and abundances of Pygoscelis penguins. Using a ‘pseudo-true’ time series as a starting point, we simulated time series of ‘observed’ census data for the period of 2000–2024. We then fit a hierarchical Bayesian population model to each dataset to assess how well each monitoring scheme recovered the known regional trends and abundances. Simulations were repeated across combinations of survey efforts, variances in inter-population abundances and census uncertainties. We found that implementing structured monitoring schemes would improve our ability to recover regional trends and abundances compared to the actual distribution of surveys conducted during the 2000–2024 period. For scenarios characterized by low variance in abundance such as the gentoo penguins on the central-west Antarctic Peninsula, we could recover trend and abundance estimates with considerably less survey effort if we deployed a monitoring scheme that cycled through all populations at an equal interval. For scenarios characterized by high variance in abundance such as the Adélie penguins on the north-east Antarctic Peninsula, surveys were optimized by splitting effort between satellite monitoring of the largest populations and cycling through the other populations. These findings are strongly influenced by the rapid increase in uncertainty regarding population abundance in the seasons after a census count, highlighting the importance of prioritizing sites where abundances are highly uncertain due to long intervals since the last survey.

This presidential address discusses the developing body of research on the quality and idiosyncrasies of historical data, focusing in particular on historical census microdata. I argue that greater attention to source criticism as a genuine subfield of social science history is essential for four reasons: to fully benefit from the expansion of big historical data, to imagine new ways to analyze historical data beyond the intentions of creators, to share insights with a wider range of scholars, and to contribute nuanced perspectives on historical data to public debates surrounding the use of these sources. I contend that historians outside social science history are vastly underestimating the creativity that is happening in our field. I also argue that social science historians are underestimating how important our work is to informing public discourse.

Spatial studies of British Victorian cities have been historically limited either in scope or specificity due to the unwieldiness of census data. However, over the last decade, the digitization of historical source material has created new possibilities for the exploration of geodemographic patterns. For the case of Manchester, the “shock city” of the British Industrial Revolution, these advancements are especially pertinent in order to settle long-standing debates as to the extent of segregation in the city. This article presents a method for the highly granular georeferencing of census data for the Manchester Township for the second half of the nineteenth century by drawing on historical material, including geographic and commercial surveys. Linking households to specific buildings presents increased possibilities for studies of heterogeneity and neighborhood patterns at a micro-scale. This approach ultimately lays the groundwork for future revisitations of nineteenth-century cities and the traditional claims that have been made around their urban dynamics.

This article proposes a mixed-method approach to examine historical censuses with regard to race. It does so by exploring various kinds of demographic records from nineteenth-century Buenos Aires in order to test the conventional hypothesis of a significant census underenumeration of the city’s population of African descent. Starting from the overall progression of census results, the article is divided into three parts. The first of these deals with potential under-coverage, the second with the possibility of classificatory changes, and the third with vital statistics, largely derived from parish books. With special attention to two censuses of the 1850s, it concludes that Buenos Aires’s Afro-descendant population likely did suffer serious demographic decline between 1840 and 1890.

The authors examine the 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940 US censuses to identify demographic characteristics of children who resided in public and private institutions for minors, with special attention to patterns of racial segregation and exclusion. The article focuses on public and private institutions founded exclusively to serve children and youth and also on correctional institutions for children and adults. The authors found racial segregation in private institutions, underrepresentation of children of color in both private and public institutions, and overrepresentation of boys of color in correctional institutions for minors and adults. They also identified a historical pattern, with few exceptions, of excluding girls of color from all types of public and private institutions.

For the first time, a question relating to certain long-term health conditions was asked in the 2021 Australian population census. The conditions included arthritis, asthma, cancer (including remission), dementia (including Alzheimer’s), diabetes (excluding gestational diabetes), heart disease (including heart attack or angina), kidney disease, lung condition (including COPD or emphysema), mental health condition (including depression or anxiety), and stroke. Respondents could indicate either none or any number of these conditions. In this paper, the data on these conditions have been analysed to compare the self-reported prevalence of diseases among the 23.4 million Australians who responded to this question (median age 39 years), of whom 3.2% were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (median age 24 years). Standardised Morbidity Ratios for each disease were calculated for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by using the relevant age-disease specific morbidity rates for the total population as the ‘standard’. Findings of this research revealed that the prevalence of diseases was much higher among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples compared to the total population. The only exception was cancer, where the rates for the two groups were not much different. Gaps in prevalence of diseases in the two groups generally increased with age. The higher rates among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples emphasise the need for continued action on health equity and the development of more nuanced and focused initiatives to reduce the gaps between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples vis-à-vis the total population of Australia. Findings in this paper were consistent with similar studies (albeit largely surveys) on health of the Indigenous peoples in Canada and the Maoris in New Zealand.

The walia ibex Capra walie is endemic to the Simien Mountains, Ethiopia, and is a national symbol. The Simien Mountains National Park was established in 1966 to protect the last 200 walia ibexes from extinction. We coordinated a population census across their c. 100 km2 range in 2015 and annually during 2019–2024. We counted 865 walia ibexes of all age and sex classes in 2015; this dropped to 650 in 2019–2021, reducing further to 306 in 2024. We investigated this decline through interviews with representatives from neighbouring communities including park personnel, village elders, farmers, local authority staff and militia. More than 70% of those interviewed attributed the drop in walia ibex numbers to poaching, both for food and medicinal purposes. Instability as a result of the Covid-19 crisis and the 2021–2022 war was seen as the fundamental cause. A species action plan is in preparation to mobilize local community ambassadors and increase protection. A database of individually recognized walia ibexes would increase our understanding of population dynamics and distribution to complement the annual counts. We recommend a change of the species’ IUCN Red List status from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered based on the recent, severe population decline and limited extent of occurrence. This status update would accurately reflect the high extinction risk of the walia and help to mobilize resources for urgent conservation actions.