Habsburška monarhija je prvo moderno uradno štetje prebivalstva izvedla leta 1857. Od leta 1869 dalje so popise izvajali vsakih deset let s kritičnim datumom 31. december. Štetja so popisovala prisotno prebivalstvo. Od leta 1880 so popisi vsebovali tudi rubriko o občevalnem/pogovornem jeziku. Tako je bilo mogoče poslej ugotavljati narodnostno sestavo prebivalstva v državi, čeprav tako formulirano vprašanje ni dajalo natančnih rezultatov. Slovenci in drugi slovanski narodi v monarhiji so zlasti pred štetjem leta 1910 zahtevali ukinitev rubrike občevalni jezik (lingua d'uso, Umgangssprache) in uvedbo nove rubrike o narodnosti ali o maternem jeziku. Zadnje avstrijsko ljudsko štetje iz leta 1910 je značilen in pomemben dogodek iz politične zgodovine Slovencev v Avstrijskem Primorju. Značilen je zaradi ravnanja mestnih oblasti, ki so štetje izvajale. Pomemben je zato, ker prestavlja politično zmago slovanskega prebivalstva, saj je oblast zaradi ugotovljenih nepravilnosti odredila revizijo štetja. Štetje leta 1910 je služilo tako jugoslovanski kot italijanski strani za dokazno gradivo ob postavljanju ozemeljskih zahtev pri mirovnih pogajanjih po prvi in po drugi svetovni vojni.

The Habsburg Monarchy carried out its first modern official population census in 1857. Since 1869, censuses were conducted every ten years with the critical date of 31 December. The censuses took into account the present population. From 1880 onwards, they also included a section on everyday language/language of communication, on the basis of which it was thenceforth possible to determine the national structure of the population in the country, even though the question thusly formulated did not yield accurate results. It was especially before the census of 1910 that the Slovenes and other Slavic nations in the monarchy demanded the elimination of the section on everyday language (lingua d'uso, Umgangssprache) and the introduction of a new section on nationality or mother tongue. The last Austrian population census of 1910 is a characteristic and important event from the political history of the Slovenes in the Austrian Littoral: characteristic because of the conduct of city authorities carrying out the census, and important because it represented a political victory of the Slavic population, after the established inaccuracies forced the authorities to order a revision of the census. Both the Yugoslav and Italian sides used the census of 1910 as evidence in setting their territorial claims during the peace negotiations after the First and Second World Wars.