Acensus of England and Wales has been taken every ten years since 1801 with the exception of 1941 when the country was focussed on other matters. It’s a rare occurrence in British and Irish family history research to be able talk about things from a UK-wide perspective but with the census we can do just that – to a degree.
The ‘UK’ Census
Although the process was administered separately in England/Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the counts were held on the same date and the schedules were broadly similar, with essentially the same range of questions being asked, particularly so in England/Wales and Scotland.
Early anomalies
Before 1841 the censuses were simply headcounts and although some enterprising officials compiled lists of names for their areas, these are few and far between. Around 800 pre-1841 census name lists are known to survive with only 100 or so including the names and ages of all the inhabitants of the area in question.
The latest releases
The returns for each of the decennial censuses from 1841 to 1921 are available for England, Wales and Scotland and all of them can be searched and viewed online. Those for later years are closed under the 100 years rule but it’s worth noting that the returns for 1931 for England and Wales were lost in a fire and with no census being taken in 1941 the next release in England/Wales will
An enumerator's experiences
An enumerator’s letter toThe Times in 1861 makes insightful reading, showing that children did help their less literate parents in some instances
