Various other censuses had taken place, such as that in the sixteenth century, in which bishops were asked to count the communicants or number of families in their dioceses.

Prompted by the 1800 crop failure, which led to significant increases in food prices, a manufacturing recession and mass unemployment, and riots, Abbot believed the crisis could be solved, and future crises averted, by better knowledge of population, "wise legislation and good government".

[2] Learning from a 1753 attempt to introduce an individual-level census combined with civil registration of births, marriages and deaths,[2][3] Abbot's plan was designed to collect only a limited amount of information.

[2][6] Information was to be collected from every household by census enumerators who in England and Wales were usually the local Overseers of the Poor,[7] aided by constables, tithingmen, headboroughs and other officers of the peace.

[10] Analysis of the 1801 census was carried out at Whitehall, in offices in The Cockpit by St James's Park,[10] by a team of clerks, working under Rickman, before being printed in two volumes by the parliamentary printer, Luke Hansard.

Enumerators often made unofficial notes to assist in producing their area report, with differing levels of detail.

Some drew up lists that noted the head of household and gave figures in columns opposite their name to say how many were in the family and the work they did.

[10] Others made listings of their local area on a level of detail equal to or greater than the 1841 and 1851 censuses, including names, family groups and relationships, ages, dates of birth, and population movements between parishes.