Databases, core: Demography and registers

Population registers are continuous records of the residential context, socioeconomic status, and demographic behavior of the members of a community. They exist for a number of European and Asian locations from as early as the seventeenth century. They combine features of other sources commonly used in quantitative studies of population, family, and society in the past. They are an important source for the study of social demography, family history, and social mobility. This article introduces them, identifies applications for them, summarizes their limitations, and reviews their availability. The focus is on historical registers.