A list of data collection operations in Cameroon since 1921, with notes on geographic coverage, implementing agency, and publications is prefaced by a series of observations about the history and development of data gathering in colonial days and since independence. Cameroon has undertaken a number of efforts since independence to collect demographic data, but the administrative censuses, sectorial surveys, and isolated data gathering operations yielded results that varied widely from 1 project to another, from 1 administration to another, and from 1 period to another. Only after 1950 was an attempt made by the French administration to gain a better knowledge of Cameroon's poplation after the German occupation through more scientific investigations. Between 1950-59, 5 censuses were carried out in 5 cities. No census of national scope was conducted before independence, so that the new nation was uninformed of its exact population. Shorlty after independence a population and agricultural census was planned, along with a sample survey of national scope, but budgetary difficlites and insecurity in the southern part of the country prevented realization of the goal, and a series of regional inquiries were undertaken instead. Examples of specialized surveys conducted in the late 1960s and the 1970s included a budget-consumption survey in the city of Victoria in 1966, as sample survey in Yaounde in 1969, an employment survey in 1971, and an agricultural census in 1972. Planning for the 1st census was again initiated in 1973, and the 1976 census was a decisive steps toward to goal outlined in 1960 by the government of mastering data collection techniques and exploitation and analysis fo results. After 1976, the administrative and technical structures put in place for the census, the Central Bureau of Censuses and Surveys, and the sampling base created for the 1976 general census were used for a series of specialized surveys, including the National Fertility Survey of 1977-78, the National Nutrition Survey of 1978, the Budget-Consumption Survey of 1982 which is currently at the stage of fieldwork, and the National Employment Survey in process of preparation.