[3] To provide general supervision and control and to compile and keep empire-wide population records, a separate Census Department (Ceride-i Nufus Nezareti) was established for the first time as part of the Ministry of the Interior.
[6] In fact that is a system, for military and tax which state based its existence, which constantly updated and provided very accurate population change.
Local mayors (muhtars) and millet religious officers were assigned locally to count the people, to announce and enforce state regulations, and, ultimately, to issue the census receipts (niifus tezkeresi) and travel permits (murur tezkeresi) which became the basis for population control as well as for the count in subsequent decades.
The organizational structure of the Department of the Census (Niifus-u Umumi Idaresi) was an independent unit (mudurluk) in the Ministry of the Interior.
[9] Like the modern census system, the most important part is the initial compilation of permanent population registers (sicil-i niifus) in each village and each quarter of the larger towns and cities.
During census each person recorded and counted in return with a signed and sealed Population Certificate (Nufus Tezkeresi), more or less a receipt for the registration, which contained the same information set down in the register.