The Post-War Population Conscripition in Slovakia in 1946

Abstract

The post-war situation in former Czechoslovakia was complicated. Suitable, reliable, and up-to-date data needed to address several urgent social problems were largely lacking. In 1946, more than 15 years had passed since the last population census 1930, and because of the major social changes and mass population transfers that had occurred in that time, it was not possible to make important decisions based on the previous census. Since for various reasons it was not possible to carry out a new population census in the first months and years after the Second World War, the decision was made to prepare an alternative solution in the form of two independent post-war population counts/enumerations with different content and conducted at different times. In this article, we focus on the first of these two population counts, which was conducted on the territory of Slovakia in 1946. This article primarily sets out to identify the main purpose of the post-war population count/enumeration in Slovakia in 1946, the method used to implement it, the content of the data it produced, and their processing and publication.