Slovenia Census

Population censuses, also known as “people counts” in the past, were carried out for the practical needs of the state administration, which requires various data about its citizens.

Following censuses for Ljubljana, capitol of Slovenia, are available in the Historical Archive Ljubljana. Text is in German and Slovenian.

Census - 1830 During censuses the forms were completed which had specifically defined items, or sections. The oldest preserved census forms in the Historical Archive Ljubljana, go back to 1830 (Annex 1) and bear the mark “Aufnahms=Bogen”. This census covers people who then lived within the area of the City of Ljubljana and its suburbs. The headings of the census forms are written in German. The first item contains personal data about householders or family members of specific families. One census form was completed for each family individually. The census forms are classified in relation to successive house numbers, first of the City of Ljubljana, followed by the census forms of houses in the Ljubljana suburbs. In the annex is shown an example census form from 1830 for the house at Mesto 8. The first five headings are of most relevance: house number, name of the owner of the house, name of the resident (here is also entered the kinship or other relationship with the head of the family), year of birth (occasionally also day and month) and profession.

Following censuses are available on microfilms through the Family History Library:

Census - 1857 1857 Austrian census for Ljubljana (Laibach) includes the suburbs of Gradišče [Gradischa], Kapucinsko [Kapuzina], Karlovsko [Karlstädt], Karolinsko [Karolinengrund], Krakovsko [Krakau], Kurjavas [Hühnerdorf], Poljansko [Pollana], Trnovsko [Tirnau]. Census returns are indexed by a card file compiled by the Zgorodvinsky Arhiv Ljubljana. Includes card index. Note: German place names in parentheses)

The next population census was carried out in 1857. The census forms carry the mark “Anzeigezettel” and are similarly written in German. The census method was the same as described above (by successive house numbers, first the City and then the suburbs). Annex 2 again shows the example of Mesto 8 (family: Valentin Zeschko). More important headings: successive number of residents in the context of a single family, name and surname of residents, date of birth (year, month and day), religion, profession or kinship with the head of the family and status.

Census - 1869 1869 general census of Austria, in and for the Magistrat of Ljubljana. Includes the suburbs of Gradišče, Kapuzin, Karlstädt, Karolinengrund, Krakau, Höhnerdorf, Polana, Sct. Peters, and Tirnau.

A new census was carried out in 1869, which did not differ a great deal in content from the previous one. The census forms, again called “Anzeigezettel”, were bi-lingual, written in German and Slovene. The section headings were the following (Annex 3): successive number of person, name and surname, sex, year of birth, religion, status, profession, place of birth. An important innovation with this census is the statement of the place of birth of a particular person, which can sometimes help open the way to further research.

Population censuses were then carried out every ten years, in 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1921 and 1931. The items of the census forms did not essentially change from the point of genealogical research in the following censuses. After 1880, when street names were introduced in Ljubljana and suburbs, census forms were also classified in relation to the alphabetical order of streets, and within that, successive house numbers.

Census - 1880

Census - 1890

Census - 1900

Census - 1910

Census - 1921 Census - 1928 Census - 1931

The census forms described and shown were the same throughout the Austrian state. Unfortunately, only few of them have been preserved, so that the census forms preserved for Ljubljana are an exceptional example in the region of Central European. This kind of archive material, because of the mass of data which it provides, is very important and interesting not just for genealogical research but also historical research of the social and economic conditions of a particular place at a particular time.

In relation to use, it is worth noting the following: census forms for area of the City of Ljubljana are preserved in entirety. For other places in the wider Ljubljana region and areas in which units operate, with few exceptions is preserved fairly modestly. In relation to what is preserved it is most relevant to know which unit covers the place in which you are interested. It must also be stressed that censuses show the state on the day on which the census was carried out. We are sometimes unable to find any continuity between two censuses, although the people covered by the census lived in the same place throughout, since events that happened in the interval between censuses are hidden from us. Indexes have been made for a considerable part of the preserved censuses, in which the censused persons are listed alphabetically, together with their residence (Annex 4). For censuses for which an index has not yet been made, it is necessary to know where a particular person lived in order to find the census form.