Land census – a complete statistical survey of land tenure and land use at a certain point, which is an important source of study of the dynamics and structure of land tenure.
Until 1917, three land censuses were conducted in Russia – in 1877, 1887 and 1905. In 1917, an agricultural and land census was carried out. The data of these censuses have been widely introduced into scientific circulation and have repeatedly become the subject of special studies.
The land census of 1877 was carried out by sending and collecting, through the local county police, questionnaires to the volost boards and private landowners. The county results of the census in 49 provinces of European Russia were published in two editions, each with 8 issues: „Statistics of land property …" and „Volosts and the most important villages …". When published, the results of the census were summarized in six tables, which contain county-level information on the total amount of land with distribution by categories (private property, property of peasant communities, treasury and various institutions); on lands of private personal property with distribution according to the size of land holdings; the distribution of private personal property according to the estate of owners; detailed information about allotment lands; the number of settlements by category; the number of residential buildings in all villages together and peasant buildings separately.