Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War) and in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1921; simultaneous censuses were taken in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with the returns being archived with those of England. In addition to providing detailed information about national demographics, the results of the census play an important part in the calculation of resource allocation to regional and local service providers by the governments of both the United Kingdom and European Union.
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In the 7th century, Dál Riata (parts of what is now Scotland and Northern Ireland) was the first territory in what is now the UK to conduct a census, with what was called the "Tradition of the Men of Alba" (Senchus fer n-Alban). England took its first Census when the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086 for tax purposes.
Distinct from earlier censuses with lesser inclusion (e.g. for religious purposes), national decennial censuses of the general population of the UK started in 1801, championed by John Rickman. The censuses were initially conducted partly to ascertain the number of men able to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, and partly over population concerns stemming from the 1798 work An Essay on the Principle of Population by Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus. Rickman's 12 reasons - set out in 1798 and repeated in Parliamentary debates - for conducting a UK census included the following justifications:
Regular national censuses have taken place every ten years since 1801, most recently in 2011 (see United Kingdom Census 2011); other partial censuses have been made on some of the intervening fifth anniversaries. The first four censuses (1801–1831) were mainly statistical. That is, mainly headcounts that contained virtually no personal information. A small number of older records exist in local record offices as by-products of the notes made by enumerators in the production of those earlier censuses, these might list all persons or just the heads of households. The 1841 Census was the first to intentionally record names of all individuals in a household or institution.
In 1920 the Census Act 1920 was passed, which has provided the legal framework for conducting all censuses in Great Britain (Scotland,[1] England, and Wales) since. The primary legislation for Northern Ireland was introduced in 1969.
Because of World War II, there was no census in 1941. However, following the passage into law (on 5 September 1939) of the National Registration Act 1939 a population count was carried out on 29 September 1939. The resulting National Register was later used to develop the NHS Central Register.
Censuses were taken on 26 April 1931 in Great Britain but the returns for England and Wales were destroyed by fire (in an accident and not after bombing) during the Second World War.[2]
On 24 April 1966, the UK trialled an alternative method of enumeration - long form/short form. Every household was given a short form to complete, while a sample of the population was given a long form to collect more detail. The short form was used for the population count and to collect basic information such as usual address, sex, age and relationships to other household members. This was the first and only time that a five-yearly census was carried out in the UK.[3][4][5]
The government undertakes the census for policy and planning purposes, and publishes the results in printed reports and on the ONS (Office for National Statistics) website. A number of datasets are also made available.
Public access to the individual census returns in England and Wales is normally restricted under the terms of the 100-year rule (Lord Chancellor's Instrument no.12, issued in 1966 under S.5 (1) of the Public Records Act 1958) and until very recently, returns made available to researchers were those of the United Kingdom Census 1901.
Some argue that ministers and civil servants in England and Wales made no attempts to strictly enforce the 100-year census closure policy until 2005, five years after the Freedom of Information Act 2000 was passed, which—they argue—effectively abolished the 100-year rule. However, personal information provided in confidence is likely exempted if disclosure could result in successful prosecution for breach of confidence. Freedom of Information Act 2000, Section 41 [1]
The 1911 census for England and Wales is now available at www.1911census.co.uk [2] powered by Findmypast.co.uk and in association with the National Archives. The census was taken on Sunday 2 April 1911 and includes more details than on previous census.
To avoid a repeat of the system overload when the 1901 census went online, a high-capacity web service was developed. A free searchable database helps users find ancestors. A charge is made to view and download a copy of the original census document.
In exceptional circumstances the Registrar General for England and Wales does release specific information from 70-, 80-, or 90-year old closed censuses.
National Censuses in Scotland have been taken on the same dates as those in England and Wales but with differing legislation, governorship and archiving arrangements; the 2001 census was the first to be taken under full domestic control while the preceding censuses since 1861 had been under the control of the Registrar General for Scotland [3]. The 19th century Scottish censuses were all released after 50–80 years of closure. The 1901 census was made available to the public after the 100th anniversary day and the same goes for the 1911 census. Unlike the Census for England and Wales there was a statutory bar on early release of the 1911 census details.
Censuses [4] before 1901 have not generally survived for reasons blamed on a mixture of official incompetence (the 1881 and 1891 returns were pulped without it being appreciated that, unlike other parts of the UK, they had not been transcribed into books), non-retention (1861 and 1871) and the remainder during a fire in the Civil War. The 1901 and 1911 censuses for Ireland (then part of the UK) have been available for inspection since 1960, as they became Irish records following the creation of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State and are thus beyond the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. No census was taken in 1921, due to the ongoing War of Independence. The first census taken in the then Irish Free State was in 1926; the first Northern Ireland census [5] was on 18 April 1926, coincident with the first Irish Free State census. No census took place in Northern Ireland in 1931.
In June 2010, the 1901 census of Ireland became available on the internet. The 1911 Census data is also available online.[6]
In 2001 the form in England and Wales was filled in by 94 per cent of the population, with a further 4 per cent identified by the census enumerators, though the results still represent 100 per cent of the population through the use of cross-matching with a follow-up survey.[7][8] The Census Act 1920 legislates a fine of up to £1,000 for those who refuse to complete it.
During some censuses, significant numbers of people intentionally did not participate for political reasons. In 1911, the Women's Freedom League, a suffragette organisation campaigning for female suffrage in the United Kingdom, organised a boycott of the census of that year. They encouraged women to go to all-night parties or to stay at friends' houses to avoid the census. In 1991, many people again avoided the census, which was conducted during the time of the poll tax, in case the government used it to enforce the widely-despised tax. It was estimated that up to one million people were not counted by the 1991 census due to such aversion.[9]
Samples of Anonymised Records (SARs) are UK data-sets consisting of samples of individual records from national censuses. These very large datasets resemble survey data and are used for a range of applications by social scientists and policymakers.
The first SAR was released in 1991. In 2001, the SAR system was extended, and consultations are currently underway for the release of SARs from the 2011 census.[10]
Although the 1851 census had included a question about religion on a separate response sheet, whose completion was not compulsory, the 2001 census was the first in which the government asked about religion on the main census form. New legislation was enacted through the Census (Amendment) Act 2000 to allow the question to be asked, and to make its response optional. Perhaps encouraged by a chain letter that started in New Zealand, 390,000 people entered their religion as "Jedi Knight", with some areas registering up to 2.6% of people as Jedi. Thus, "Jedi" was the fourth-largest reported religion in the country.(See: Jedi census phenomenon).
The UK's most recent national census took place on 27 March 2011. Several identity and status options were included for the first time in the census, including options relating to civil partnerships. The first set of data to be released from this census (basic counts of population by age and sex) should be available by July 2012, with the remainder of tables following thereafter. [11]
The next UK census to take place will be conducted in March 2021.
| Year | Date | Notes | New questions asked |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1801 | 10 March | Details collected were mainly head-counts, with few still existing. | |
| 1811 | 27 May | Details collected were mainly head-counts, with few still existing. | |
| 1821 | 28 May | Details collected were mainly head-counts, with few still existing. | |
| 1831 | 30 May | Details collected were mainly head-counts, with few still existing. | |
| 1841 | 6 June | Name. Age (for those over 15, this was supposed to be rounded down to the nearest 5 years, though this instruction was not obeyed in all cases). Occupation. Whether born "in county" (i. e. the same as where currently living), elsewhere in the UK, or in "Foreign Parts". | |
| 1851 | 30 March | Relation to head of the household. Marital status. Place of birth. Whether blind, deaf or dumb. Language spoken (Ireland [6]). Rounding down of ages dropped. | |
| 1861 | 7 April | ||
| 1871 | 2 April | Economic status.[12] Whether an imbecile, idiot or lunatic[13] (note that such usage of terms predates euphemistic definitions; see euphemism treadmill). | |
| 1881 | 3 April | Language spoken (in Scotland [7]). | |
| 1891 | 5 April | Language spoken (in Wales).[12] Whether an employer, an employee, or neither. Number of rooms occupied, if fewer than 5.[14] | |
| 1901 | 31 March | Number of rooms in dwelling.[12] Whether an employer, worker or working on one's own account. Whether working at home or not. Language spoken (children under 3 years of age excluded) (in Wales).[15] | |
| 1911 | 2 April | Industry or service with which the worker is connected.[12] How long the couple has been married. How many children were born alive, how many who are still alive, and how many who have died. | |
| 1921 | 19 June | Place of work and industry[12] Whether a marriage has been dissolved by divorce.[16] | |
| 1931 | 26 April | England and Wales - destroyed in 1942 fire; Northern Ireland - no census. | Place of usual residence[12] |
| 1939 | 29 September | National Registration Act 1939.[17] No census in 1941 due to the Second World War. | |
| 1951 | 8 April | Household amenities.[12] | |
| 1961 | 23 April | Qualifications, migration, household tenure.[12] | |
| 1966 | 24 April | Long-form/short-form census, trialling an alternative method of enumeration. | Car ownership, method of travel to work.[12] |
| 1971 | 25 April | ||
| 1981 | 5 April | ||
| 1991 | 21 April | Ethnic group, long-term limiting illness, central heating, term-time address of students.[18] | |
| 2001 | 29 April | Size of workforce, supervisor status, first question on religion on the main census form (England, Wales, and Scotland).[12] | |
| 2011 | 27 March | An option to complete the form online.[19] Also provided English, Northern Irish, Scottish, Welsh and British national identity option following criticism that English and Welsh were absent from 2001.[20][21][22][23] | Includes questions relevant to civil partnerships. Other new questions involve asking migrants their date of arrival and how long they intend to stay in the UK; respondents also required to disclose which passports they held.[24] A rehearsal census was conducted on 11 October 2009.[25] |
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