German census of 1895

The German census of 1895 was one of the first full-scale German censuses, organized in all territories of the German Empire.

Prior to 1871 many German counties organized various local census records, however most of the results did not survive World War II. The 1895 census is the first Volkszählung (German People count) to be published in the Statistik des Deutschen Reiches yearly, with copies surviving. It gives detailed info on population, property, religion and nationality in all German territories.

However, the record was organized at the peak of the Kulturkampf campaign and it is openly criticized for understating the number of Catholics in most of the areas. Also, the accuracy of the population figures published from the 1895 German census for the Polish territories was "adjusted" to show that the ratio of ethnic Germans to ethnic Poles was much higher than it actually was. The Polish language was banned from usage in administration and education and the data for numbers of Polish speakers was lowered. This is attributed to the official push to Germanize the areas and to legitimize the century of occupation.