Other counts were sometimes made for fiscal or military, and occasionally for religious, purposes.

Estimates by contemporary observers supplement our knowledge, which may be taken as at least approximately correct.
[Sidenote: England and Wales] The religious census of 1603 gave the number of communicants in England and Wales as 2,275,000, to which must be added 8475 recusants.

Adding 50 per cent.

for non-communicants, we arrive at the figure of 3,425,000, which is doubtless too low.

Another calculation based on a record of births and deaths yields the figure 4,812,000 for the year 1600.