Census in the United Kingdom
The most recent UK census took place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on 21 March 2021.
[3][4] Tax assessments (known in the later Empire as the indiction) were made in Britain in Roman times, but detailed records have not survived.
[5] In the 7th century AD, Dál Riata (parts of what is now Scotland and Northern Ireland) conducted a census, called the "Tradition of the Men of Alba" (Scottish Gaelic: Senchus fer n-Alban).
[6][7] The first simultaneous census of the British Empire, covering the United Kingdom, India and the Crown Settlements, took place in 1881.
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.
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.
[16][17] 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 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.
[27][28] Exceptions exist for refusing or neglecting to respond to questions about religion, as stipulated by the Census (Amendment) Act 2000.
[29] The 1851 census included a question about religion on a separate response sheet, whose completion was not compulsory.
New legislation was enacted through the Census (Amendment) Act 2000 to allow the question to be asked, and to make its response optional.
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.
On behalf of the Government, the UK Statistics Authority initiated a research programme, called Beyond 2011, to investigate a range of alternative options to conducting a UK-wide census in 2021.
It has been replaced by the Census Transformation Programme which has the purpose of taking forward and implementing the vision and recommended approaches.
