In the late 19th century, “classification fever” (Topalov, 1994) swept through Europe gripping not only the natural sciences with their classification of the species, but also the social sciences. All the disciplines set about counting and measuring: anthropology, demography, economics, history and sociology. Germany and France counted their unemployed nationwide for the first time in 1895 and 1896 respectively. Great Britain, however, rejected the idea in 1895. This article traces the history of this rejection and outlines its implications.