Coincident full

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

es have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931, and Scotland in 2021. In addition to providing detailed information about national

demographics Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examin ...

, the results of the census play an important part in the calculation of resource allocation to regional and local service providers by the UK government. The most recent UK census took place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on 21 March 2021. Because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the census in Scotland was delayed to 20 March 2022.

History

Tax assessments (known in the later Empire as the

indiction An indiction (, impost) was a periodic reassessment of taxation in the Roman Empire which took place every fifteen years. In Late Antiquity, this 15-year cycle began to be used to date documents and it continued to be used for this purpose in Med ...

) were made in Britain in

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

, but detailed records have not survived. In the 7th century AD,

Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaels, Gaelic Monarchy, kingdom that encompassed the Inner Hebrides, western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North ...

(parts of what is now

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and Northern Ireland) conducted a census, called the "Tradition of the Men of

Alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English-language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingd ...

" (). The first census in England was the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, compiled in 1086 under

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

for tax purposes. Distinct from earlier, less inclusive censuses (e.g. for religious purposes), national decennial censuses of the general population started in 1801, championed by the statistician John Rickman. The censuses were initially conducted partly to ascertain the number of men able to fight in the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, and partly over population concerns stemming from the 1798 work ''

An Essay on the Principle of Population The book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'' was first published anonymously in 1798, but the author was soon identified as Thomas Robert Malthus. The book warned of future difficulties, on an interpretation of the population increasing ...

'' by Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus. Rickman's twelve reasons – set out in 1798 and repeated in parliamentary debates – for conducting a census of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

included the following justifications: * "the intimate knowledge of any country must form the rational basis of legislation and diplomacy" * "an industrious population is the basic power and resource of any nation, and therefore its size needs to be known" * "the number of men who were required for conscription to the militia in different areas should reflect the area's population" * "there were defence reasons for wanting to know the number of seamen" * "the need to plan the production of corn and thus to know the number of people who had to be fed" * "a census would indicate the Government's intention to promote the public good", and * "the life insurance industry would be stimulated by the results". Regular national censuses have taken place every ten years since 1801, most recently in 2021; 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, with 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. The first simultaneous census of the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

, covering the United Kingdom, India and the Crown Settlements, took place in 1881. The

Census Act 1920 The Census Act 1920 ( 10 & 11 Geo. 5. c. 41) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Providing for a census for Great Britain (or any subsidiary part of it), on a date to be fixed by Order in Council, it remains the primary legislati ...

provides the legal framework for conducting all censuses in Great Britain (Scotland, England, and Wales). The primary legislation for Northern Ireland was introduced in 1969. Before this legislation, it was necessary to have a separate act of parliament for each census. Britain was also responsible for initiating and co-ordinating censuses in many of its overseas colonies. Because of the disruption caused by the

, there was no census in 1941. However, following the passage into law on 5 September 1939 of the

National Registration Act 1939 The National Registration Act 1939 ( 2 & 3 Geo. 6. c. 91) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The initial National Registration Bill was introduced to Parliament as an emergency measure at the start of the Second World War. The ac ...

, a population count was carried out on 29 September 1939. The resulting National Register was later used to develop the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

Central Register. Censuses were taken on 26 April 1931 in Great Britain, but the returns for England and Wales were destroyed in an accidental fire during the Second World War. 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 detailed information. 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. The 1971 and 1981 census in Northern Ireland were boycotted by some

Irish Republicans Irish republicanism () is the political movement for an Irish republic, void of any British rule. Throughout its centuries of existence, it has encompassed various tactics and identities, simultaneously elective and militant and has been both w ...

, with the 1981 census happening at the same time as the

1981 hunger strike The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republicanism, Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976 when the British government wit ...

Release of information

England and Wales

The British government undertakes the census for policy and planning purposes, and publishes the results in printed reports and on the website of the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

(ONS). A number of

dataset A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data. In the case of tabular data, a data set corresponds to one or more database tables, where every column of a table represents a particular variable, and each row corresponds to a given record o ...

s are also made available. Public access to individual census returns in England and Wales is normally restricted under the terms of the 100-year rule (

Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

's Instrument no.12, issued in 1966 under S.5 (1) of the

Public Records Act 1958 The Public Records Act 1958 ( 6 & 7 Eliz. 2. c. 51) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom forming the main legislation governing public records in the United Kingdom. It established a cohesive regulatory framework for public records ...

). 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 The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public right of access to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in t ...

was passed, which, they argue, effectively abolished the 100-year rule. However, personal information provided in confidence is likely to be exempted if disclosure could result in successful prosecution for breach of confidence. In exceptional circumstances, the

Registrar General General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in the United Kingdom, many other Commonwealth nations and Ireland. The GRO is the government agency responsible for the recording of vital record ...

for England and Wales does release specific information from 70-, 80-, or 90-year-old closed censuses.

Scotland

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 all preceding censuses since 1861 had been under the control of the

Registrar General for Scotland The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) () was a non-ministerial directorate of the Scottish Government that administered the registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adoptions in Scotland from 1854 to 2011. It was also r ...

. The 19th-century Scottish censuses were all released after 50–80 years of closure, while the 1901 and 1911 censuses were made available to the public after their 100th anniversaries. Unlike the censuses for England and Wales, there was a statutory bar on early release of the 1911 census details. The census that had been due in 2021 was delayed until March 2022, with the

cited as the reason. This was the first time since 1941 that the census count had been delayed. The return rate of the 2022 census was lower than expected, leading to plans to extend the deadline. There were concerns the data collected would be statistically invalid.

Ireland and Northern Ireland

Irish censuses from before 1901 have not generally survived to the present day, due to a combination of official incompetence (the 1881 and 1891 returns were pulped before they could be transcribed into books), non-retention (1861 and 1871), and a fire during the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War (; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Emp ...

in 1922. The 1901 and 1911 censuses for Ireland (all of which was then part of the UK) have been available for inspection since 1960 – they were made available earlier than the other British records, since Irish law is different on this matter. No census was taken in 1921 due to the disruption of the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...

. The first census taken in the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

(now the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

) was in April 1926; the first Northern Ireland census occurred at the same time. No census took place in Northern Ireland in 1931, but one took place there in 1937.

Coverage

In 2001, the census form was completed by 94 per cent of the population in England and Wales, with a further 4 per cent identified by the census enumerators, though the results still represented 100 per cent of the population through the use of cross-matching with a follow-up survey. The Census Act 1920 (as amended) legislates a fine of up to £1,000 for those who refuse to complete their census forms. In some censuses, significant numbers of people intentionally did not participate for political reasons. In 1911, the

Women's Freedom League The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom from 1907 to 1961 which campaigned for women's suffrage, pacifism and sexual equality. It was founded by former members of the Women's Social and Political Union after the Pa ...

, a

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

organisation campaigning for female suffrage in the United Kingdom, organised a boycott of the census. They encouraged women to go to all-night parties or to stay at friends' houses to avoid the census and some heads of households refused to report the women at the address. In 1991, many people again avoided the census, which was conducted during the time of the

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. ''Poll'' is an archaic term for "head" or "top of the head". The sen ...

debate, in case the government used it to enforce the tax. It was estimated that up to one million people were not counted by the 1991 census due to such evasion.

Criminal law

Under section 8 of the

, whoever refuses or neglects to comply with the census, makes a false declaration, makes, signs, or delivers a false document, or causes the same, or refuses to answer, or gives false answers, shall be liable on

summary conviction A summary offence or petty offence is a violation in some common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial and/or indictment (required for an indictable offence). Canada In Canada, summary offe ...

and face a maximum

fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Fran Fine, the title character of ''The Nanny'' * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (p ...

of £1,000. Exceptions exist for refusing or neglecting to respond to questions about religion, as stipulated by the

Census (Amendment) Act 2000 The Census (Amendment) Act 2000 (2000 c. 24) and Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2000 (2000 asp 3) are acts of the Parliaments of the United Kingdom and Scotland, respectively. They introduced a question on the religion of respondents to th ...

Data sets

Traditionally, outputs are released in the form of tables of counts at various levels of geography. However, microdata, known 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 it is anticipated that there will be SAR files from the 2011 census.

2001

The 1851 census included a question about religion on a separate response sheet, whose completion was not compulsory. However, the 2001 census was the first in which the government asked about religion on the main census form. New legislation was enacted through the

to allow the question to be asked, and to make its response optional. Perhaps encouraged by a chain letter that started in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, 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 In some national population censuses which include a question on religious identity, media report numerous respondents giving their religion as Jedi (or "Jedi Knight") after the quasi-religious order in the ''Star Wars'' science fiction franch ...

)''.

2011

The 2011 national census took place on 27 March 2011. Several identity and status questions were included for the first time in the census, including questions relating to

civil partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, primarily created to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage, with ch ...

s. The first set of data to be released from this census (basic counts of population by age and sex) was made available in July 2012, with the remainder of the tables following thereafter.

2021

The 2021 National census took place on 21 March 2021. On behalf of the Government, the

UK Statistics Authority The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA, ) is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for oversight of the Office for National Statistics, maintaining a national code of practice for official statist ...

initiated a research programme, called

Beyond 2011 Beyond 2011, also known as The Beyond 2011 Programme, was a project initiated by the UK Statistics Authority to look at the alternatives to running a UK census in 2021. In 2008, the Treasury Select Committee had expressed concerns about the incr ...

, to investigate a range of alternative options to conducting a UK-wide census in 2021. There was not one census covering the whole UK in 2021 as the census in Scotland was postponed due to the

. Following agreement to the recommendations in January 2015, the UK Statistics Authority formally closed the Beyond 2011 Programme. It has been replaced by the Census Transformation Programme which has the purpose of taking forward and implementing the vision and recommended approaches.

List of UK censuses

References

External links

Census - Office for National Statistics
which is responsible for the Census in England and Wales

(England & Wales) *
Story of the CensusThe National Archives
- selective access information to UK census data.
The General Register Office for Scotland
which has been responsible for the taking of the census in Scotland since 1861.
Scotland's Census Results OnLineThe British Census
(Concepts and Techniques in Modern Geography)
The UK Census of Population 1981
(Concepts and Techniques in Modern Geography)
The UK Census of Population 1991
(Concepts and Techniques in Modern Geography)
Census.ac.uk
- free census resources for academic research in the UK.
Official archived version of 2011 census website (www.census.gov.uk)
Directory of free-to-access online UK census records. {{DEFAULTSORT:Census In The United Kingdom Demographics of the United Kingdom The National Archives (United Kingdom)