More about the Census

A census has been taken in each area of the British Isles every ten years since 1801 except during World War II (1941). The census returns have only been officially preserved since 1841, so very few early censuses have survived - unfortunately.

Detailed census returns are available from 1841 to 1901 only.

Since 1841 each census has listed the details of the people in each household on census night. They provide a regular snapshot of a town or village and are therefore an extremely important genealogical source for confirming actual family groups, information not directly available in birth, marriage or death certificates.

However, the census is a statistical tool designed to gather information for use in social planning for the government and not as a source for family historians. They are not available for viewing for 100 years because they contain sensitive personal information. Therefore the 1901 census is the most recent one you can view.

The 1841 Census gives the following information

  • Place: street name, house number or name, though in rural areas this was not always given.
  • Houses: uninhabited or building, inhabited.
  • Names of each person who abode therein the proceeding night: forename and surname.
  • Age and sex: for each person, males in one column, females in another. For everybody over 15 years old the age was usually rounded down to the nearest five year band (e.g.24 rounded down to 20).
  • Profession, trade, employment or 'of independent means': (FS = female servant and MS = male servant).
  • Where born: Whether born in same County, Scotland Ireland or Foreign Parts: Y = Yes born in county of current residence, N = No, I = Ireland, S = Scotland or F = Foreign Parts.
  • The end of a building is indicated by the use of two oblique strokes //
  • The end of each household within a building is indicated by the use of one oblique stroke /.

In 1851 the shortcomings of the 1841 census had been recognised and the following extra information was collected:

  • The address of each household.
  • Everybody's exact age.
  • Marital status.
  • Relationship to head of household.
  • Place of birth.
  • Whether the individual was deaf and dumb or blind.

From 1871 the disability column also recorded imbecile, idiot or lunatic

In 1891 three extra columns were included for employee, employed, neither employee or employed. Further those returns from Monmouthshire and Welsh counties recorded whether a person was Welsh or English speaking or both.

In 1901 the three extra columns were named employer, worker or own account.

The following list gives the National Archive class reference for the census returns from 1841 to 1901. They are then sub divided into piece numbers and then into folio numbers. Example RG9 1084 76 or RG13 1660 14.

  • HO107 - 1841 (to piece 1465) and 1851 (from piece 1466 - 2531)
  • RG9 - 1861
  • RG10 - 1871
  • RG11 - 1881
  • RG12 - 1891
  • RG13 - 1901

All the available census returns have been microfilmed and can be viewed for the whole country at The Family Record Centre in Islington, London. They are also available in many local record offices and other repositories but will probably only cover the surrounding area. Several commercial organisations are now making these returns available either on CD Rom or via the Internet. However these census returns are made up of pages from the Enumerator's book and are handwritten. They have also been used by statisticians who have marked the pages with ticks, lines and other marks.

All census returns are filed in the order they are collected, area by area, parish by parish. Even within a parish, names are not filed in alphabetical order but in the household/family groups where they were living on census night. A street is not necessarily all in one place on the film as the enumerator would use a route similar to a postman and whilst going up and down a street would take in side streets where they occurred. Unless you are searching for your ancestor within a very small hamlet it is advisable to try and see if you can obtain a likely address of your ancestor from some other source, such as a birth certificate, or by seeing if there is an index or transcript available like that provided by familyhistoryonline.

Further you may find that your ancestors were not always truthful about their age and may not age 10 years between each Census. Also they were often very vague about where they were born, they may have given the nearest big town rather than the small hamlet where they were born or they may just give a place they once lived. Take care.

The census records who was in each household on the night of:

  • 1801 - Tues 10 Mar
  • 1811 - Mon 27 May
  • 1821 - Mon 28 May
  • 1831 - Mon 30 May
  • 1841 - Sun 6 June
  • 1851 - Sun 30 Mar
  • 1861 - Sun 7 April
  • 1871 - Sun 2 April
  • 1881 - Sun 3 April
  • 1891 - Sun 5 April
  • 1901 - Sun 31 Mar