Documentary heritage submitted for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2012.

A unique collection of about 7,000 hand-written census registers that include individual-level census records of the Egyptian population at several time points in the 19th century (1840s- 1880s). Their importance stems from being the earliest censuses in any developing country to include information at the "individual" level for all segments of society (including females, children, and slaves). They are relatively detailed and complete, and provide an extremely rare opportunity to take a close look at a pre-modern non-Western population in its very early steps on the path of modernization.

• Year of submission: 2012
• Country: Egypt