Talk:Census in the United Kingdom

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[edit] 1931 Census

I have added in a brief paragraph about the 1931 census being taken but destroyed. I didn't know whether to add it into the 'Availability' section or not - that seems to deal with a different issue. Feel free to put it elsewhere if you want. Satyricon uk 00:19, 10 July 2006 (UTC)


[edit] The Changing Shape of the United Kingdom, circa 1920

If any contributor can supply this information, it would be interesting to have material here on what happened when the UK was rent asunder by the Irish War of Independence, and the Irish Public Records Office was destroyed in the subsequent Civil War. In particular: were irreplaceable census records lost in the PRO fire? How, if at all, were records divided between Dublin and Belfast, following Partition? Was the 1921 census conducted in Ireland, and if so, how effective and reliable was it? Jimgawn 23:12, 27 September 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Availability

As with the main Census article I have reworded a sentence saying that the statistical information is sold to interested parties to say the results are published in reports and on the ONS [etc] websites. You can get all the standard output from the 2001 Census without paying either from the web or on CD. As far as I know the only things you'd need to pay for are commissioned tables (that is, tables which were not produced as standard) where you are paying for the programmer's time rather than the data itself; and access to the system for disseminating anonymised microdata (where, strictly speaking, again you are not paying for the data itself). Jonesey67 13:09, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Of interest perhaps is the 1920 Census Act, which is still mostly in force, which says:
4-(1) The Registrar-General shall, as soon as may be after the taking of a census, prepare reports on the census returns, and every such report shall be printed and laid before both Houses of Parliament.
(2) The Registrar-General may, if he so thinks fit, at the request and cost of any local authority or person, cause abstracts to be prepared containing any such statistical information, being information which is not contained in the reports made by him under this section and which in his opinion it is reasonable for that authority or person to require, as can be derived from the census returns.

-- zzuuzz (talk) 17:04, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks zzuuzz. Yes, as I suspect you know, the conventional interpretation of those paragraphs is that the RG does not have the authority to produce Census results, other than those presented in reports to Parliament, unless the costs are covered by the person/authority making the request. However, in 2001, the costs of the standard 'non-report' results were covered through the Census Access project - essentially paid for ahead of time by a group of government departments and suchlike organisations. I'm not sure if the new 'independence' legislation will render these arcane details obsolete or not...

Jonesey67 19:12, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Having now had a look at the draft legislation it seems that these details will indeed become obsolete, with the Statistics Board (to which the RG for England and Wales authority to conduct a Census passes) will have the authority to publish any results it sees fit. Of course, this applies to England and Wales only, and assumes this part of the legislation is not redrafted before it is passed (which itself is an assumption).82.26.117.172 17:31, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Source for cause of destruction of 1931 records

Whilst I'd generally agree that mailing lists are less than ideal sources, please note that Dave Annal might reasonably be regarded as a reliable source for this sort of information quicksearch on TNA website, and the TNA catalogue confirms that the documenty reference he gives does indeed contain correspondence relating to the fire [1]. Unfortunatley I haven't immediatley been able to find a more definitive reference, obviously published by TNA. David Underdown (talk) 13:13, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree, the reference isn't exactly offensive, but it would be nice to reference a properly published document. Surely there must be something written about this somewhere? -- zzuuzz (talk) 13:22, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] United Kingdom countries

The article currently does not really discuss that this is really three different censuses in the constituent countries, nor the relationship with the Ireland census while it was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. These would be useful additions. -- zzuuzz (talk) 13:22, 25 February 2008 (UTC)